Aetherman
by RhiTheHybrid
Summary: After joining his friends in a temple raid, Lukas comes across a strange golden feather, which reveals that he's the son of an Aetherman, an ancient creature. After that, he starts to shift to an Aether form and back with no control over it. After revealing the truth to the NOOTS, they set out hoping to get Lukas back to normal. And that won't be easy. (Sequel to Son of the End)
1. Chapter 1: Stuff Happens Already

_I was falling._

 _I was screaming at the top of my lungs, unready to feel the impact of the pale ground below. The creature had dropped me, leaving me to fall to my death. I looked up after hearing a screech. Jesse was diving towards me. His eyes were filled with determination, his arm outstretched in an attempt to grab me. But, he was suddenly gone. I felt an incredible pain shoot up my spine before everything faded to pitch black._

I woke up with a gasp. Getting up and looking around, I relaxed when I remembered I was in my room. Getting out of my bed, I quickly got dressed in my armor and walked out of my room.

It had been a month since we got back from the True End. Everyone had gotten used to Jesse`s abnormalities by now and most things had gone back to normal. I, myself, was glad, since the True End was a nightmare and tried to think of it as little as possible. Our sleep schedules were also finally back to normal.

Silently walking down the stairs, I made my way to the kitchen. I was usually the first one up, which usually allowed me to cook. I pulled some things out of a chest and laid them on the table. I cracked open several eggs, putting them into three different pans and putting them on the stove. After putting butter into all three pans, I quickly put some ground cocoa beans into milk, and put the keg onto the stove to let that heat up. I opened the chest once again to find a cooked porkchop, and I facepalmed. Axel really needed to be careful about where he put his food. I grabbed a decent amount of mushrooms and leftover chicken broth in a bowl, threw them into a pot, and waited for the hot chocolate to finish heating up until removing it and replacing it with the pot. Opening the lid to the pot, I poured a little salt inside before closing it again, and I removed the eggs from the stove. Within twenty minutes, the mushroom stew was ready, and as I turned the stove off, I heard Petra walk down.

"Morning." she yawned.

"Hey," I greeted, turning around. It was usually Olivia who was the second one up.

"You`re cooking _already_?" Petra asked, sitting down at the large table. "Dude, it`ll be awhile until everyone`s up."

I shrugged. "Well, I guess the last ones up can have breakfast cold."

After a moment, Petra got up and got her own food. Olivia came down after a minute, and Axel. Of course Jesse was the last person awake… as always. Everyone was already eating, so I walked upstairs to wake him up. I cracked open the door to his room. Jesse`s room was always littered with papers and random items, and today was no different. He was sprawled out on the bed in shorts and a T-shirt, one scarred arm hanging off the bed, snoring quietly.

"Jesse." I said. He didn't budge.

"JESS!" I yelled.

Jesse let out a yelp, falling off of the bed with a loud _thud_. His eyes were wide open, but he relaxed when he looked over to me.

"Dude, really!?" he growled.

"Everyone else is awake." I said flatly.

"Okay, okay." he sighed, walking over to the door. "Just let me get dressed."

He closed his door. I stood outside the room, just to make sure he didn't just go back to bed. Within a few minutes, he walked, out in full armor, yawning. Glancing at me for a second, he walked downstairs. I smiled. Jesse had always been a late riser.

After everyone late, we packed food and grabbed weapons, getting ready to head towards a temple a good 100 miles away. Crest, Jesse`s…. 'nephew', lent us three horses that would help us get there after. Jesse really hated to admit his blood relations with Crest. By midday, everybody was ready to go. Em was somewhere in Boom Town, so it was just the five of us. I got on a black horse behind Olivia, Jesse sat behind Petra on another horse, and Axel had his own. It took us an entire day to get there, which was a lot faster than if we were walking, thanks to the horses. We camped out for the night in a quick dirt hut before taking on the temple. It was on a mountain, surrounded by a roofed forest.

"So… what do you think`ll be in the temple?" Axel asked as we were heading towards the temple, still on horseback.

"Who knows? It was just recently discovered." Olivia replied.

"It _would_ be nice to see a change from just a couple pieces of gold and iron." said Jesse.

"Well, we'll just have to find out what's inside." I said.

We had to climb to get up to the temple… which I didn't like too much. Whenever i was in a high place, it reminded me of when I was about to meet my death in the End. It was overhanging the side of the mountain, as if you could only _fly_ to access it. We had to build a flight of cobblestone stairs to get to the entrance.

Jesse quickly crafted a torch to look inside the pitch-black entrance.

"Well," he said. "I hope you guys like exercising."

There were stairs. A lot of them… which reminded me of Soren`s lab. They went up quite a ways.

"Well, be better get going if we want to see what`s in the temple." Jesse said, pulling out his enchanted diamond sword. Petra pulled out her own sword, and so did I, although mine was just a simple unenchanted stone sword. Jesse`s and Petra`s swords lit up the entire room.

And so we started climbing. The good thing about being in a band of heroes who constantly fight crime and raid temples is that you're in good shape. But after a while, my legs started to burn from the effort.

"I think I see the top." Petra said. I looked up, and she was right, we were getting close.

When we finally climbed to the top, we found ourselves in a hallway. There were several doors, and one large one at the very back. There was something about the back door that made me really interested… I wanted to check it out. But, it looked like Jesse had other ideas.

"Let`s check out the first left room, the work our way towards the back." he said.

"Hey… can I check out the back one?" I asked. "I won't be long."

"Are you sure?" Jesse asked. "It`s better if we stick together."

"I'll be fine, Jess." I told him.

I saw a flash of annoyance in his eyes when I said 'Jess', but he nodded. "Okay, whatever you want. He turned to walk in the door he chose, following the others who were already inside.

Once I was alone, I slowly walked towards the back door. I somehow felt drawn it it… it`s really hard to explain, but I felt like my life depended on me going there. Once at the back, I pushed open the double doors.

It led to a gigantic chamber. The actual floor was way down below, and a flight of stairs led to it, giving it a football stadium-like appearance. At the bottom, I could see a pedestal with something glowing on it, and behind it, a large waterfall coming down from a tunnel in the wall, pouring into a pool below it. The water reflected on the entire room. There was a hole in the dome-like ceiling, letting sunlight touch the pedestal.

I made my way down the stairs. When I got to the bottom, I saw what was on the pedestal. It was a feather. It was a large, long one, glowing golden with purple uneven stripes on it. I walked towards the pedestal, stopping just in front of it. I felt like the feather had a meaning. I slowly reached out my hand. The feather glowed brighter as my hand got closer to it. I drew back, but I reached out slowly once again, and picked it up. It felt silky in my hands. I brought it towards me to get a closer inspection of it. I heard something rumble, and I brought my eyes off of the feather to see the pedestal was sinking into the ground. When I looked back at my hand, the feather was gone. In a state of confusion, I looked around to see if I dropped it anywhere. That`s when a sharp, unbearable pain shot through my whole body I let out a yelp, clutching my head, as that was where the pain was the worst. My legs gave away under me, leaving me trembling on the ground. My vision was blurred horrible, but I could see a white glow. I tried to call out for help, but all that came out was an inhuman yelp.

The pain lasted for several minutes with me trembling on the floor. At last, my pain started to dull, and I tried to get up, only to collapse again. My whole body felt like all of my bones broke and were healed improperly. I tried my best to at least sit up, my vision clearing. The first thing I noticed was how _different_ everything looked. Everything looked brighter and sharper, as if I was hit with a Potion of Night Vision. The second thing I noticed was my hands- well, they weren't really hands anymore, not even remotely similar. They were a lot more like wings, with three claws on each. I let out a scream, or much more accurately, an inhuman screech. I would have been surprised if my friends didn't burst in any moment… which they didn`t. I stumbled to the pool with new legs that I weren't used to. I caught myself on the edge, and I looked into it.

What I saw made me let out a gasp. My face was similar to an Enderman`s, but with light blue feathers, and cream colored feathers from where my nose should have been and down. My eyes were completely blue, with darker blue cat-like pupils. There were purple markings on my face, and headdress-like golden feathers. Behind that was my "hair"... which was now made of feathers just like everything else. I quickly backed up from the pool, whimpering out of instinct and falling onto my rear. This couldn't be happening. This had to be just a bad dream. Suddenly the pain came back, sending me to the floor again.

The pain once again lasted for several minutes. When the pain finally dulled, I didn't dare to move for several minutes. I was still petrified from what I saw in the pool. Finally, I sat up, still trembling. I tried to get up again, and I succeeded, no longer off balance. I looked down, and relief washed over me. I was normal again. I looked around one more time, before I heard Petra`s voice behind me. I turned around to see Jesse and Petra walking down the stairs.

"There wasn't anything in this temple," Jesse remarked. "Did you hear that screech?"

I thought for a second. Should I tell them? Jesse might have known what happened. No, I couldn`t. They might see me as a monster. ANd hopefully it was just a one-time thing.

"Yeah." I said, half-lying. "I didn't know where it came from."

Jesse looked like he was thinking, but Petra said, "It was probably an Enderman somewhere. Was there anything in here?"

"No." I replied. I didn't like lying to my friends.

"Well, I guess coming here was a waste." Petra said, crossing her arms.

"At least there was some pretty cool architecture here." Jesse said.

"Yeah…" I started. "Can we… start back now?"

"Yeah, let's do that." Jesse replied.


	2. Chapter 2: The Very Short Monster Fight

Three days later, it happened again.

I felt the pain right when I was in public. Fortunately, I was close enough to the outskirts of the town that I could get to the woods, hidden by the trees, a I changed. It was just like last time, but it seemed even more painful. Once again, I collapsed to the ground. After what felt like forever, the pain dulled. The changes were done.

I tried my best to get up. I realized my legs were shaped in a similar way to Jesse`s, when he was an Enderman. I had no idea how he managed to walk around like that, maybe because the wings helped him balance. I didn't have wings… wait, I did. My arms were wings. I heard some voices draw near with my now ultra-sensitive hearing, and letting out an instinctual growl, I dragged myself further into the forest. I was still terrified of what I was.

After a few minutes of stumbling, I found myself at a lake. I knew it well, since me and the other Order members sometimes went here when the town was peaceful. The sun was setting in front of me, and I looked down to see my full reflection, trying my best to stand up on two legs.

I was pretty tall, though I knew it wasn't as tall as Jesse was. I has mostly white blue feathers, save for a cream-colored underbelly, more purple markings, and darker purple spots on my arm-wings and legs. I saw a tong tail with a golden tuft of fur at the end of it behind me. I sat down, still staring at my reflection. I was turning into this strange monster, and I had no control of when or where it happened. I felt numb inside. I couldn`t hide this from my friends forever. But, I didn't want them to see me as a beast.

I panicked when I saw that the sun was almost fully set. I looked around, panicking. Where was I supposed to get away from the monsters? I couldn't go back to town. I might cause panic, and get my friends out, and they might kill me, or realize it`s me! I could go somewhere high up- no. I couldn't handle somewhere up high. I couldn't get into the lake. I couldn`t tread water forever, especially in this form. There was nowhere to hide.

I turned around to see the hiss of a creeper. On all fours, (Yes, like a wolf. Trust me, it was instinct.) I whirled around. Indeed, there was a creeper. It caught sight of me. It froze up for a second, and then to my surprise, it turned 180 degrees and ran the opposite direction. Even though I was shocked, I let myself relax. Mobs were afraid of me? Getting back on two legs, I started to attempt to get closer to the town so when, or if, I changed back, I could get to town quickly.

I heard the gurgle of an Enderman a distance away. But, for some reason, hearing it made me angry, and want to do something. It made me want to kill it. I realized that the new instincts were getting to me. Terrified, I tried to push the thoughts away. Just focus on the walk. Just focus on the walk.

I heard the Enderman growl again. I turned my head, looking around, trying to find the source of the sound. I forced myself to keep walking. I heard a screech right behind me. I whirled around to see me face-to-face with an Overworld Enderman. I took a few steps back. It roared, leaping at me. I felt the adrenaline kick in. Without even thinking, I nimbly jumped to the side, letting the mob fall to the ground. Upon pure instinct, I lept on it, pinning it to the ground. I clamped my jaws down on its neck, letting my razor sharp teeth sink into it. The Enderman let out a screech of pain, before going limp, and despawning.

Coming back to my senses, I let out an inhuman gasp, scrambling back. I wasn't shocked by me killing it, but _how_ I killed it. I bit its neck. Like an animal. I doubled over as extreme pain came over me. It felt like an eternity of pain, it dulled, and I knew I was human again. But that didn't shake off the fact that I killed the Enderman by biting its neck. Getting up and feeling numb all over, I staggered back to the New Order`s temple.

"Where have you been?" Olivia asked, looking up from a book.

I bit my lip. I knew it was unusual for a person to come back in the middle of the night after saying they were going to be back before sunset. But, I didn't want to confront them while I was… that thing, much less tell them what I did while as it. I quickly thought of an excuse.

Well, there was this… uhh…. Scuffle." I lied. "And…. there were these… thugs. Against this one guy. And the guy was…. Uhhh… actually beating up the thugs."

I prayed to Notch that they were going to believe it.

"And… I had to break up the fight." I continued.

"It takes three hours to break up a fight?" Jesse asked from the other room.

"It was… uhhh… a long, hard fight." I said.

Jesse walked into the room, a handful of papers in his hands. Sitting down at the table, he laid them out.

"There was a robbery at the trade center while you were gone." he said. "We couldn't find any trace of who did it, no matter how hard we searched."

"Well, that's… bad." I stammered.

"What`s up with you today, Lukas?" Olivia asked. "You seem nervous."

"I`m… uhh… tired."

I quickly went upstairs before they could ask any more questions. The last thing I needed was them finding out what I was really doing. I went to my bedroom, closing the door behind me and locking it. I flopped onto my bed on the other side of the room. I still couldn't believe what happened. I turned into that monster again. And I killed another monster in a ft of instinctual rage. I couldn't help but let the tears flow.

I prayed to Notch that this horrible nightmare would end.


	3. Chapter 3: BOOKS

"Ugh, nothing!" I yelled to nobody in frustration.

I was our personal library, and I was trying to find a book that hopefully mentioned the beast that I kept on turning into. It was my third day searching. I was sitting at one of the desks, with one book right in front of me and piled of books around me. I heard Jesse mentioned something like "Aether" once while talking about the True End, so maybe that had to with it? I found books about the lore and anatomy of Endermen, but nothing even close to what I was looking for.

I had also changed once again within the last day… in the bathroom. Nobody came to use it while I was in there, and I had to wait it out. I tried my best to keep quiet while I changed. If I didn't, well… I guess I could say it was an upset stomach? I've also noticed that the changes were lasting longer every time.

Sighing, I got up. Within five minutes, I had all of the books I has taken out put back in the shelves, most likely ow they were organized. Heck, out library was never organized. I walked out of the library, sighing. I made my way to the treasure room and to the entrance to the temple, and I was just about to open the door when I heard a voice.

"Where are you heading?"

I turned to see Petra leaning against one of the pillars.

"The library." I said. It was true, I was going to try to get there to look through even more books. I turned again to open the door.

"Lukas, I'd like to have a talk with you."

I heard her walk up to me, and I turned again. She had a look of concern in her brown eyes, and she crossed her arms.

"Lukas, what's wrong with you?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked nervously.

"You`ve been acting strange this past week. You always look like you're on edge, and you've disappeared twice. And I _know_ that it wasn`t a fight that made you come home late. Is this about the temple?"

I bit my lip. If I kept on acting that suspicious, people were going to find out what was going on in no time. Coming up with something most likely not very convincing, I said,

"It`s… uhh… stomach problems. I… didn't want to tell everyone, cause, heh, you know, it's personal."

I looked away. I prayed to Notch she would leave me alone.

When I looked at her again, I saw she didn't believe me, but she said, "Okay, whatever. Just… stop disappearing for hours on end."

With that, she walked away.

I couldn't help but sigh with relief. I Petra was still suspicious and was probably telling the others, but at least nobody would bother me so I could do what I needed to do. Turning once more time, I opened the door and walked outside.

It was still late morning I guessed, by the position of the sun. It was a relatively warm day, with no wind. A lot of people were out and about, but thankfully nobody approached me. Swerving to avoid people, I slowly made my way to the town library. That library was a lot bigger than our own, so I was sure there had to be at least one book that talked about my problem. I hoped.

It look me at least half an hour to get there, and when I did, I took a deep breath and opened the door. The librarian was looking down at a book at her desk, and paid me no attention. There were a few people at the reading desks, but everything was quiet. I started my search.

I went through a few books that talked about mythical beasts. It had nothing even closely related to the beast I was turning into. I looked through several Enderman books, since the monster seemed to like killing Enderman and looked kinda like them, but I still found nothing. I looked through another book. And another. And another. The piled of books started to pile up on the desk I was sitting at. Still, I found nothing. I was beginning to grow a little impatient. Still, I found nothing talking about my problem. I was beginning to think this was hopeless. Hours passed, and still nothing. Soon enough, my desk was completely covered in books. Sighing, I started to put them all back.

When I was putting away one of the last books, one caught me eye. I pulled the book out to observe it. It was an incredibly worn book, and it was really thick. It was lined with a faded gold color, and it looked like it had been collecting dust on the shelf for ages. Wiping the dust off of the front over, I saw that the title read, " _Demigods and the history of the End"_.

Praying to Notch that this was the book I needed, I brought it over to my desk, sat down, and opened the book. There was a lengthy backstory of the End that I only skimmed over, and it mentioned Notch, Herobrine and even Einde, Jesse`s father, but nothing of what I was turning into. Only when I was farther into the book things started to get relevant. I found some illustrations of a winged Enderman, just like the ones that were in the True End, and even the prophecy. It even talked about Ender Demigods and signs that somebody was one.

I turned the page, and I gasped out loud. I found just what I was looking for. There were illustrations looking exactly like the monster, and a header at the top read, " _Aetherman"_.

The text read that nobody knew for sure if the creatures existed, but old tales told that they were part of a great war that imprisoned Einde and the Winged Endermen to the True End. I've also read that an Aether Demigod always had blonde hair and blue eyes… just like me. That most likely meant I _was_ a Demigod. Only did I read further did I understand dreadful my problem really was.

" _Myths say that in old times, there was a temple that was created by the Aethermen where humans worshipped them. The relic they used was a flight feather from the very first Aetherman, named Cielo. A few years before the Aetherman were imprisoned in a different world called the Aether, Cielo grew bored with all the worship. He decided to create a small prophecy, where if a Demigod, a son of Cielo, were to make contact with the feather, it would trigger their second form, the form of an Aetherman. They would shift to that form and back, over time adjusting to the new body and instincts, before becoming trapped in the form and their mindset reducing to that of a wild animal`s."_

I felt my heartbeat speed up. I was that Demigod who touched the feather. I was the one slowly becoming nothing more than a monster. And eventually, I was going to stay an Aetherman forever, and lose all rationality.

Trying to look as calm as possible, I checked out the book from the library, and stashed it into my inventory. When I was outside the building, I started to run. I swerved to avoid people, and didn`t answer to anyone`s exclaims or questions. When I got back to the temple, I swung open the doors and quickly closed them behind me, not caring that it slammed and made a loud noise.

"Hey, Lukas, what`s wrong-"

I whizzed right past Olivia. I couldn't talk to anyone right now. I raced upstairs, making my way to my room, and I locked myself in. Breathing heavily, I let myself sink to a sitting position against the door. This couldn't be happening. I didn't want to become a monster.


	4. Chapter 4: LUKAS WHAT THE HECK

"Three bandits killed a man in city square!"

"What!?" Jesse yelled in surprise. Both him and me turned around to see a woman standing there at the entrance to the treasure room, muscles tensed as if she were about to get attacked, the doors still moving from being swung open so quickly.

"Who were they!?" Jesse asked loudly. I knew Jesse didn't take killings lightly… but at least this would stop him from asking me so many questions about what`s wrong.

"The Burning Silence." The citizen breathed.

"Great." Jesse breathed.

I took a deep breath. The Burning Silence was a gang of four people who used weapons like sword enchanted with Fire Aspect and bows with the Flame enchantment to kill people. Burning to death was the worst way to go. We had a few run-ins with them before, and we were only able to catch them once. They had a ton of speed potions. When we actually did catch them, they escaped from prison.

Jesse turned to me, face dead serious. "Lukas, get the others. We have some criminals to hunt down."

I nodded quickly before I flew to the living part of the temple. Swinging open the doors, I saw Petra, Axel and Olivia.

"The Burning Silence killed someone!" I burst out. Everyone immediately looked up me wide-eyed.

I continued, "We're going after them."

Within no time, we were running in the streets. People cleared the way to let us through. Nobody ever really dared to get in the way of the New Order of the Stone when they were going on a chase. My heart was thumping. The last run-in with The Burning Silence, Axel got caught on fire and was left with several burns, and I got a nasty cut on the side. I could only expect this time to be even worse… if we found them, that is.

When we got to the square, Jesse turned around, going into full leader mode.

"We're going to split up." He told us. "Going in smaller numbers will help us to be able to cover more ground and we'll have a better chance of finding them. Petra, you'll be coming with me. Axel, you and Lukas will also search. Olivia…."

Jesse turned to her, taking a deep breath. "Keep the citizens under control."

I looked around. Citizens were running in random directions, screaming, and just panicking in general.

"Right." Olivia said, nodding.

"Let`s move." Jesse said again.

We split up. Jesse and Petra went running in one direction, and Axel and I went the opposite way.

"So… what's the plan!?" Axel asked me over the voices of the screaming townspeople.

"We get on the roofs." I said quickly. We'll be able to spot those guys easier there!"

"There!" Axel pointed out a small shop. Its roof would be low enough for us to help each other up.

When we got there, Axel gave me a boost up quickly. I turned, and grabbed his hand, half-pulling him up while he climbed up. Dang, he was heavy.

I was no Petra when it came to jumping from rooftop to rooftop, but I think I was okay at it. We ran across the rooftops, hopping across the gaps and jumping up to higher roofs, looking for any members of The Burning Silence. They were pretty easy to spot.

I skidded to a stop on top of a building near the outskirts of the town.

"What are we-"

"Shhh." I cut Axel off.

I slowly inched over to the edge of the rooftop, getting on my hands and knees. I could have sworn I heard the obnoxious voices of one of the members of the Burning Silence… and I was right. I could see the black edgy leather flame-printed jackets of the gang members, and their bright orange dyed hair. They were just behind the building and at the edge of the woods. Sometimes I wondered if my old group, the "Ocelots", ever looked that edgy and annoying.

"We killed that dude for a crystal!?" one of the members growled.

"Not just any crystal." a big one replied. "A relic. One that was said to summon a legendary beast when held skyward!"

"Besides, it could get us big bucks." another member added in.

"Well, hold it up and see if it summons this 'legendary beast' thing!" the last member, a tall, skinny one, growled.

One of them took a bright glowing blue thing out of their inventory. Looking closer, I saw it was a shining, diamond-shaped gem. It gave off a soft, pearly gleam in the afternoon sun. Something urged me to go after it.

The one holding the crystal held it up to the sy, and the other three backed up. They waited, and waited… but nothing happened.

"Guess that idea`s blown." the member said, pulling it down.

They were completely off guard. That was my chance.

"Axel, come with me." I whispered to him.

Silently, I got up, stepping over to the edge of the building. Knowing it wasn't high enough to do much damage to me, I jumped. I rolled, ending up crouching on the ground.

"What the-!?" A member turned.

I heard the yell of Axel as he fell from the rooftop. I barely managed to avoid him falling on me.

"Oh, it`s just those Order guys." one member said. I pulled out my stone sword as Axel put up his fists.

"Do you have an explanation to why you killed an innocent person!?" I hissed, trying to looks as intimidating as possible. I knew I couldn't scare anyone. Jesse does a much better job than me, and he`s short!

"For the crystal thing, duh." the member with the relic said, putting it away into his inventory. Three of the Burning Silence members pulled out enchanted swords, either iron or diamond, and the last one pulled out an enchanted bow.

I knew Axel and I were outnumbered and outskilled. I took a few steps back.

"`Ey, kid. Why don't you spare your own life and get out of our way!?" one of the members growled.

Being an idiot, I narrowed my eyes. "Never."

"You guys can't just kill someone and get away with it." Axel yelled, cracking his knuckles.

"Well, if you say so." the tall member said.

There was silence.

"...ATTACK!" One of the members yelled, the one with the crystal, charging straight towards me. All of the others did the same.

The bandit`s enchanted ron sword met with my stone sword. Sparks flew. My arms shook fro the effort of keeping his weapon at bay. I heard footsteps behind me, and without thinking, I leapt to the side to avoid another Burning Silence member`s sword. This was going to be a hard fights.

"Guys!" I heard a voice say. I quickly lifted my head to see Jesse and Petra standing on the rooftop, of their eyes widened.

I yelped as I felt a burning pain shoot up my shoulder. I brought my hand to it, and I felt my hand burning. One of the bandits hit me with a flaming arrow.

I heard a battlecry from Petra as she leapt down from on top of the rooftop and on top of a bandit. I quickly patted out the flames from the arrow and brought up my sword to block an attack from one of the bandits. When he brought his sword back to try to stab me again, I thought fast and slashed at his side. He let out a yell, and staggered back. He threw his sword- right at my face. I barely dodged just in time for it to graze my cheek, and even then it stung like Nether. I looked around quickly. Jesse was charging at the bandit with the bow, one of his arms in flames. Petra had actually killed another one, and Axel was having a difficult time fending against one with a diamond sword.

That's when I felt it. The pain. I knew I was changing again, and at one of the most inconvenient times. I couldn't just ditch me friends in battle, but I couldn't let them know what was doing on. One of them was unarmed, and one of them was dead. I prayed to Notch that they could handle themselves, and I turned.

I ran straight into the woods.


	5. Chapter 5: The Beans Have Been Spilled

My heart was pounding. I swerved past trees and jumped logs. I needed to get as far away as possible. They were definitely going to follow me. They were eventually going to find out anyways. I just didn't know it was going to be so soon.

I heard footsteps. I took a quick glance behind me to see that it was the Burning Silence member that I had just disarmed. I panicked. There was no way I was going to outrun him.

And I was right. I heard the shatter of a splash potion behind me and I felt something being thrown onto my body, tackling me to the ground. I landed face-first, and I felt something, most likely a rock, cut my face. I winced in pain.

The Dead Silence member turned me over. There was a glint of spite in his eyes, and he had his iron sword in hand. He put a foot on me, preventing me from attempting to get up, and put the sword at my neck.

"You have some nerve, kid." He told me, his voice low but loud. "Nobody, especially _you,_ should get away with throwing my sword across the field and just running."

He dug his boot deeper into my chest, making me yelp in pain.

"Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you right now." the bandit growled.

I didn't have an answer. I knew I was going to die, and he was only stalling it. I stayed silent. Suddenly, I let out a yell as I felt the changes taking place. Adrenaline rushing through my veins, I threw him off. He let out a yelp, obviously surprised at the sudden strength. I stood up and tried to run again, but I was brought down by the horrendous burning pain. I let out a scream.

"WHAT THE NETHER!?" I heard the bandit yell.

My head was pounding. I felt something burning hit my side, and I let out an inhuman screech. I could tell it was a flaming arrow. After a moment, the changes were complete. They were happening faster every time, but with more pain. I collapsed to the ground momentarily. I could feel the burning of the fire as it engulfed my feathers. I looked up, my vision still blurred slightly. The Burning Silence member had an enchanted bow in his hand, and he was aiming another arrow at me. I could tell it was a potion-enhanced arrow.

He fired. I moved just enough that it grazed my bad shoulder, and I let out a screech of pain. I charged at him, and he did something smart for the first time, and he ran. My mind was running on pure instinct as I chased him on all fours. I felt sick as I ran. The arrow had been tinted with a Potion of Nausea. I leaped at him. He looked incredibly small compared to me as I caught him, and I heard something crack as I put my weight on him.

I let out a menacing growl as he tried to get up. In the back of my mind I knew I was hurting a helpless person, no matter if it was a criminal. But, my instincts said something else: that it was prey and I was finishing it off. He tried to take out his sword. I batted it away, and it hit a nearby tree. He let out a terrified whimper.

"D-don't kill me…" he pleaded.

I didn't listen. I put more weight onto his body, and he let out a scream as something else cracked.

He despawned, his inventory spilling onto the ground, including the blue crystal. I broke his spine.

My rational side took over as I let out a small inhuman gasp, quickly backing up. I felt dizzy from the nausea, and what just happened didn`t help it. I killed someone. It didn't matter if it was a bandit who killed another person. I killed someone when they couldn't fight back.

I heard footsteps behind me.

"Lukas…?"

It was Jesse`s voice. My eyes widened. He couldn't know what happened. I turned and tried to run, but I collapsed from the nausea and pain from the second fire arrow. My secret was finally going to be let out. What would they say? They were probably going to hate me now. I'll be alone again. Just like how I felt when Aiden, Gill and Maya abandoned me.

I heard a sharp gasp behind me. I turned around to see the blurred figure of Jesse him-freaking-self. Through the nausea I could see that the fabric on his left arm was burned off completely, showing severely burned skin underneath. His eyes were widened, and I yelped, backing up at the sound of him pulling out his sword.

His bright green eyes moved momentarily to the pile of inventory and then back to me. After observing me from another moment he stiffened up, but he stepped forward.

"...Lukas!?" he started.

I let out a hiss out of instinct. Something told me that he was an enemy, and needed to be destroyed. But I couldn't do that. He`s my _friend_.

He slowly started towards me, face obviously showing that he was in shock. I'll be honest, this gave me serious deja vu.

The pain combined with the annoying nausea made me too miserable to retaliate. All I could do was just let it happen.

"Jees, why the Nether were you hiding this from us?" I heard him mutter under his breath.

I was on my knees, but I felt myself fall. I found myself, well at least the uppermost part of my body, in Jesse`s arm (his other was unusable). He got into a kneeling position, probably from the weight of my body.

"Lukas!?" he asked in a state of concern.

I could feel my consciousness slipping away.

"Lukas!"

I fought to keep my eyes open, but it was no use. The nausea and pain was too much. Everything slowly faded to black.


	6. Chapter 6: The Secret Gets Unsecreted

The first thing I felt when I woke up was a huge migraine from the nausea.

I heard some voices, but I wasn't able to make them out. After a moment of the pain dulling, I opened my eyes. My vision was blurred, but now I could hear the voices.

"Jesse, hold still! That arm won't heal if I don't bandage it." I recognized the voice to be Ivor`s.

"Sorry."

I sat up, rubbing my head. My vision cleared, and I could see I was in a dim room. I realized it was inside of Ivor`s house. I looked to the other side of the room to see Jesse flinched away from Ivor, who was holding a roll of bandages in his hands. Confusion washed over me. Why did Jesse bring me back here when he found out what was happening?

After Ivor quickly bandaged Jesse`s burnt arm, he turned towards me to find me up.

"Oh, you're awake."

"Yeah…" I replied, failing to hide the edge in my voice.

Jesse got up from the bad, and walked over, crossing his arms into an awkward position.

"Lukas, I think you have some explaining to do."

I sighed, looking away. I was expecting this, but it didn't make me any less uncomfortable. I could see even Ivor had a serious look on his face. I knew Jesse told him about it.

And so I told them everything. From me discovering the curse feather in the temple, the transformations, to the book, and why I fled. There was no point in hiding it any longer. Jesse saw it with his own eyes, and I even ran from battle in an attempt to hide it. I wouldn't even be surprised if they didn`t even trust me anymore. But I didn't want to lose them, just like how I lost Aiden, Maya and Gill.

"Lukas, I… I don't know what to say." Jesse`s voice had a bit of regret to it.

"I know what to say." Ivor said, crossing his arms. "Louie, you are an IMBECILE for keeping that to yourself. What if Jess-"

" _Jesse_." he angrily corrected while Ivor was in mid sentence.

"- _JESSE_ didn`t find out later, and what that book said was true!?"

"I..I don't know." I stammered, refusing to make eye contact with either of them.

"You should have told us sooner." Jesse sighed. "If not the others, _**I**_ would have understood completely."

Somehow I thought that wouldn't be true. Sure, Jesse did turn into something similar, but that was for a short time, and he wasn't slowly losing his mind. Or was he?

"I-I was just afraid that if anyone found out, you'd be afraid of me, or hate me…" I confessed.

"Dude." Jesse started with a less serious tone. "Why the nether would I hate you for being a Demigod!? If I did, that`d make me a hypocrite."

"What was this 'beast' you were turning into again?" Ivor asked me.

"Aetherman…" I replied, my voice trailing off.

"Aetherman…" Jesse thought for a second.

"..I know what those are."

"What?" Both me and Ivor looked at him.

He grabbed a stool, which was conveniently in the corner where my bed was, and sat down.

"Well, it looks like you guys will be in for quite a story."

"I`m sorry, what?" I said.

That was the literal most farfetched story I`ve ever heard. And with Jesse being as sarcastic as he is, it would be difficult to believe.

Ivor wasn't buying it. "You what you are saying is that Herobrine isn't a demon, but he created Einde to assist him in creating mobs because humans were destroying the world, and then Einde created Enderman and Notch and Herobrine made Aethermen to fight Endermen, sealed Einde in the true end, then sealed Aethermen away in a different world!?"

"You bet." Jesse said flatly.

"Where did you even get that information!?" Ivor asked.

"If I told you, you'd think I'm insane."

"I already think you are, so go on right ahead!"

"Notch and Herobrine told me themselves."

"Congratulations Jesse, you are now the most deranged person I have ever met! I believe that you deserve a reward!"

I was concerned about something else rather than if Jesse was all there.

"So if I'm part Aetherman, and Jesse`s part Enderman, does that make us enemies?" I blurted out.

"Well, you didn't try to kill me, so no." Jesse shrugged.

There was a knock at the door.

"I will answer it." Ivor announced. His vice became low. "It will allow me some alone time from _you two_."

With that, Ivor stood up from his seat and walked out of the room. Jesse and I gave each other looks. And by the annoying voice I knew exactly who came to the door.

"JACK!"

At that very moment, Crest flew into the room, nearly tackling Jesse out of his seat in a hug. I flinched, but Jesse flinched even harder. He had a look of pain on hi face as his "half-nephew" almost squeezed him to death.

"Okay, Crest, I see that you're happy." Jesse choked out in a strained voice.

I noticed that Crest now had on that set of armor Jesse had gave him. No no longer wore his headphones, and the armor was made of iron with blue accents, with a black cape with the same strange symbol on it as the symbol on the back of his old jacket. I never got to ask him what the symbol meant.

Jesse lightly hugged Crest back with his good arm, and at long last the kid let go.

"Dude, Jack, I heard that something crazy happened, and I got here as fast as I could, and then the other member dudes were worried, and- hey what happened to your arm!?"

"It`s a long story." I told him. My headache was gone, so I was able to get out of the bed without feeling dizzy. I also noticed there were bandaged where the arrows hit me under my armor.

Jesse told him with me chiming in every once in a while, and once we were finished, Crest had the an astonished look on his face.

"So Louie`s a half-god thing like you and me!?"

"Yes." Jesse flatly answered.

"...SO COOL!" Crest seemed excited. I rolled my eyes.

Crest started to bombard me with questions.

"Dude, what was it like transforming!? How many times did it happen!? Did you really kill an Enderman with no weapons!? CAN I OBSERVE YOU WHEN YOU TURN BACK AGAIN!?"

"Please, not so many questions at once!" I breathed in.

Ivor walked in out of nowhere.

"I have been researching this article that Louie found, and I must say, it is quite the interesting find."

We all turned to him.

"This right here… is part of a relic that will be able to summon an Aetherman!"

"...Cool?" I said.

"Holy crap, that`s AWESOME!" Crets seemed to be a lot more excited than me.

"And not only that… From the book I… borrowed from Lukas` room, I found that Aetherman have immense magical capabilities, even surpassing a winged Enderman! And if my theory is correct, one of these Aethermen may be able to assist Lukas in controlling these transformations of his."

"Really!?" That caught my attention. I would have done anything just to get rid of this stupid curse.

"You said 'part', right?" Jesse started. "So… where's the other halves?"

"Oh, who knows where, maybe in the Far Lands, or the Nether…"

"I… don't like the Nether." Crest squeaked.

"So how the heck are we going to find these pieces?" I asked Ivor.

"Oh, well that`s incredibly simple. We search for them until we find them."

"And that`s going to take a while, right?" Jesse asked an obvious question.

"You don't want your little friend here to turn into a mindless beast, _right_?" Ivor asked him.

"Of course not!" Jesse snapped back.

"Very well then," Ivor said, then announced, "We will be ready to set out in three days, So start to gather your belongings, for we are going on an adventure!"


	7. Chapter 7: The Rock of Majesticness

"Jesse, you are not traveling alone."

"You think just because of my arm I`m automatically useless on the field of battle?"

"NO! Just- Listen, that kid of yours can`t fight, Lukas has…. That, and you being the only person fit to fight in the group can be dangerous!"

I sighed. Jesse and Petra had their occasional arguments, but this one was especially annoying. I had to agree with Petra, Jesse being the best fighter in a group as of now wasn`t a good idea. His arm was rendered unusable for a while. It would be a good idea to have both Petra and Jesse in one group. Em also returned the day before, which gave us even more support.

After a long, pointless argument, the two decided that they would both be in one group with Ivor and I, while Crest, Olivia, Axel and Em were in the other. Jesse decided having one potion specialist in each group was a good idea, in case anything happened. Ivor didn`t seem to want to leave Jesse`s side, so Crest was on the other group. Good, I thought. Now he can annoy someone else for once.

After me changing for another time and locking myself in the basement for a few hours, we saddled up and we were ready to go.

"So… we just search everywhere possible?"

Petra nodded. "These relic pieces could be anywhere, so keep on watch."

"Right." Olivia answered. "I'll make sure everyone keeps close watch."

"Okay, gang." Jesse addressed all of us. "Let`s roll."

"Roll." Olivia repeated with an unamused look.

And so we set out. Crest let us borrow some horses again, and Jesse and Petra were on one horse with Petra leading after a fight over who took lead, and Ivor and I were on another horse with me controlling it. We decided to check the Old Builder`s temple to see if there was anything there, since they kinda built a hallway that led to a whole bunch of worlds. According to Jesse, the Aethermen were sealed in another world, so maybe one relic piece was there.

It took us the entire day to get there. Nobody talked much, and I stayed silent the entire time because I was still slightly uncomfortable with the others knowing what I was doing through. They didn't have to search the corners of the world just for me, you know. Ivor asked about Jesse`s arm a few times, and Jesse simply replied that he was fine.

"So…" Jesse awkwardly broke the awkward silence. "Lukas. What was it like the first time?"

"Probably a lot like yours." I spoke for the first time since we started out. "Burning pain, vision blurring, and itchiness."

"At least you didn't pass out." Jesse replied to me. "Or have to learn how to fly within the span of thirty seconds."

I failed to keep myself from shuddering. The moment when I was carried off and dropped by Eerste, Jesse`s half-brother and Crest`s father, still haunted my dreams and my thoughts. I didn't think I could ever go near cliffs or anything up high again. Even the loud _crack_ that something in Jesse`s body made as we hit the ground still sent chills down my spine. Jesse didn't seem to be bothered by it. He did describe the battle between him and Einde in detail once, so I wonder if he ever got any nightmares from the True End.

"Hey, remember that one time Lukas` butt was on fire?" Petra suddenly brought up.

"Not that again…" I groaned, letting myself faceplant into the horse's mane.

"That has absolutely nothing to do with the topic that was at hand, Petra." Ivor stated the obvious.

"Well, there was a really awkward silence for a minute." Petra shrugged. "And I wanted to break it."

"That was the absolute _best_ way to start up a conversation, Petra. I don't think even I could have thought up of something better. Talking about somebody`s butt on fire is the best way to get things started." I had no idea if Jesse was being sarcastic or not.

"How long until we get to this blasted temple?" Ivor growled.

"About three hours." Jesse casually answered.

After a long time of traveling on horseback with some small talk, the clusters of oak and birch trees became towering jungle trees, and the grass below us became crowded with tall weeds and shrubs. It became difficult to maneuver the horses, but in due time, we came across the Old Builders` temple. We tied our horses to a fence I placed down, and we started towards the old building. If possible, it looked even more old and overgrown before.

"So what do we do once inside again?" I asked.

"We look around, duh." Petra replied.

"Thanks for the clarification, Petra." Jesse sarcastically said.

Once inside, we started to search at once. While everyone else was looking around the walls, I pulled out an iron pickaxe and walked up to the middle of the stone floor. The others told me that while they were raiding this temple, there were stairs leading down to a lower room before, but was engulfed by mobs and lava afterwards. Maybe a relic piece was down there.

One block at a time, I mined the floor with the pickaxe. Thank Notch I had thought of bringing every kind off tool (excluding a hoe) along with me. The new whole in the floor relealed a large mess of lava and vines. There were very few wooden stairs, and I assumed the rest had been burned away.

"Maybe there's something down here?" I piped up. Jesse and Petra turned to me.

"Maybe." Petra replied as she looked down the hole.

"But how are we going to get down?" Jesse questioned.

"There`s enough vines for us to get to the bottom." Petra noted.

After climbing down, I looked around. The room was almost completely dark save for the occasional lava puddle, and there were a few mobs around. After slaying them, we spread out to look around. I went to a far side of the room, and took the blue crystal out, inspecting it. I had brought it along with us to that we could add to it. I turned it over, looking at small cracks and cavities in its glossy surface. Could this thing really save my sanity? I hoped so. I noticed that it seemed to glow brighter than usual. I started to walk again, searching along the walls. It glowed even brighter. I took a few steps back, confused. It grew slightly dimmer. It was detecting a relic piece, wasn't it?

"Hey guys, look over here!" I called to my friends.

"What is it?" Jesse asked as he walked over.

"I think this thing works as some sort of detecting device." I answered.

"Are you sure?" Petra raised an eyebrow.

"I`m sure." I replied to her. I slowly started to walk, and the relic grew brighter.

"Reminds me of the Old Order`s amulet." Jesse commented.

I continued to walk, the crystal glowing brighter with each step. I stopped right in front of a wall, where the gleam from the relic was almost blinding.I looked up to see that I was in frnt of a carving, similar to the ones in the True End. It was a detailed picture of an Aetherman, looking like it was landing from a light, its arms outstretched.

"The heck?" Jesse brought up his good hand to touch it, and yelped in pain as a blue shock shot up his arm, causing him to stumble back.

"You did say that Aethermen and Endermen were made to be enemies, right?" I suggested.

"Or maybe I'm not allowed to touch carvings anymore." Jesse winced. I could tell he had some pretty painful memories rising up. He wasn't that hard to read.

"Look at that slot." Petra pointed to a hole in the wall at the top of the Aetherman carving.

"It looks about the same size as the tip of the crystal," I commented.

"Put it in," Jesse said.

I brought the relic up to the hole, sliding it in. It went in about halfway before making a clicking sound, and the outlines of the carving started to glow. I took a step back as the portion of the wall suddenly came forward, and slid to the side. Where the wall had been, was a small room with a pedestal in the middle. On top of the pedestal was none other than a shard of blue pearly crystal. It was the shard. It was thin but wide, nearly as large as the original crystal.

"There it is." Petra breathed.

I took a step forward and took the shard out of its place, inspecting it. I quickly backed away as the wall slid back, sealing the room once again. The lines of the carving stopped glowing. We had gotten the first shard.

I took the relic out of its place in the wall. It came out pretty easily. I turned to Jesse and Petra, one hand with the shard and the crystal in the other. Suddenly, the two started to pull together, like magnets. They collided with each other, fastening together.

"Well… that wasn't too hard." I said.


	8. Chapter 8: Crumbling Temple Cliche

"Let`s get back up and find Ivor." Petra said.

"RIght." I nodded, putting the relic into my inventory.

Just when we were at the way to the top, a deafening _crack_ sounded from above, leaving my ears ringing.

"What the-!?" Jesse didn't finish his sentence before a large rock, or piece of the wall, came tumbling down. After it came more.

"The temple`s collapsing!" Petra exclaimed.

"How are we going to get out!?" I asked frantically.

"The way we came." Jesse was looking at the vines.

"Jesse, are you CRAZY!?" Petra yelled at him.

"It's the only way out!" Jesse retorted.

While they were fighting, I had already started up the vines.

"Less talking more moving!" I said to them.

They both looked at me funny for a second before following my lead up the vines. It was pretty terrifying, with rocks falling from above, threatening to hit you and either kill you from the impact or make you fall to your death. Petra was already ahead of me, and I did my best to hurry after her, to look down at Jesse, who was struggling. With his burnt arm, it made climbing more difficult. I waited a minute for him to catch up.

"What are you guys doing!?" Petra called from above, who was on a ledge close to the top where a wall used to be.

"I'm fine." I heard Jesse mutter under his breath as I grabbed him.

I knew now there was a higher risk of both of us dying, but I had to try. One arm holding Jesse and the other latched onto the vines, I made my way up as quickly as I could. Jesse tried to protest, but now wasn't the time to complain about me doing all the work for him. I looked down to freeze up for a moment when I saw how far from the ground we were. That moment of freezing nearly cost us our lives. I looked up again to see Petra let out a yelp and getting to higher ground as one of the most terrifying thing in my life happened. RIght above me, the piece of wall gave way, the large piece of stone falling towards the both of us.

"LEFT!" I heard Jesse screech.

I didn't have time to react. In the blink of an eye, Jesse struggled out of my grasp, practically leaping from a farther part of a wall, dragging him with me. The rock missed us by a few inches. Jesse started to climb again before nearly falling from a smaller rock hitting him, so I grabbed him again and made it up.

Petra was there to take Jesse onto the ledge with her, and when I was going to crawl up, the piece of stone gave way under me, pulling me into the hole with it.

"Lukas!" I felt a hand grab me (painfully) by the hair before it pulled me up. I felt solid ground under me, and I scrabbled to the part of the floor that actually wasn't about to fall apart under me.

"Is.. everyone… alright?" I heard Petra pant.

"Aside from getting a rock to the face, I`m fine." Jesse replied.

"Heights…" I muttered. I looked up. "Where`s Ivor!"

"GUYS!" I saw Ivor run into the temple, Yes, from the entrance and not from the upper floor, his face white.

"What?" Jesse asked him.

"There was this… beast! A large, black one! I didn't get catch a proper glimpse of it, but it has these wings! And… And tail!" Ivor sounded frantic.

Jesse`s eyes grew wide, and I knew why.

"...Enderman?" I questioned.

"It fired this… beam! At the temple!" Ivor continued. "It`s gone now, but I thought you were done for."

Jesse staggered back, eyes widened. I stood up.

"...That has to be an Enderman." He muttered.

"I thought they were all dead!" Petra exclaimed.

"Well, apparently not!" Ivor retorted.

I was going to say something, but I felt a burning pain across my body, dull at first, but becoming more and more painful. I knew that the change was coming.

"I need… to go somewhere else." I squeaked, stumbling past them towards the temple`s ruined entrance.

"Lukas, wait-" Petra started.

"I'll be back! Probably!" I called as I was outside.

I turned to the left, hurrying into the jungle undergrowth out of sight. I really didn't want them to see the changes first-hand. As soon as I reached a clearing far away enough, I let myself collapse to the ground. As usual, my vision blurred and the pain grew stronger, but strangely, it didn't hurt as much as the other times. Still, I couldn't help but let out a scream, or more accurately a roar as it happened. Not a second too soon, the pain faded, and I was left there as a feathered beast.

I sat up, looking at my surroundings. All of my senses were heightened. I could see every single leaf on the trees that towered over me clearly. I could hear the faintest rustling of an ocelot stalking its prey.

I could smell blood. _Ender_ blood.

I jumped to my feet on all fours and glanced around, emitting a menacing growl out of instinct. I could hear the beating of wings in the distance. The sane part of me was terrified. I haven't had the best experience with Endermen. But the instinctual part of me wanted to go after it. To kill it.

Flicking my tail, I got on all fours, keeping my stomach close to the ground as I crept towards the scent. In the back of my mind I knew that I should keep close to my friends so that I wouldn't get lost, but my instincts didn't want any of that. The foul stench grew stronger, and I knew I was close. Then, I could feel his voice fill my head.

"Now that those Demigods and humans have been eliminated, I can finally gather those shards with no obstacles." The statement was followed by unsettling laughter.

It was Eerste.

I shrank back into the undergrowth. But, then I crept forward, peering over the undergrowth to see him. It was the same Ender that dropped me in the True End, but he looked a lot worse than I remembered. He was so skinny that I could count his ribs, and he had scars all over his body that I was sure he didn't have before. His chest was ripped open, exposing a glowing blue-green orb. His bright green eyes gleamed with a sadistic hate.

My mind fought with itself to either run back and somehow warn my friends or attack. Of course my instincts decided attack. With a roar, I leapt out of the bushes straight towards him, claws outstretched. Just before I slammed into him, he was gone I landed on the ground on all fours, hissing and all of the feathers on my back standing on end. I whirled around and jumped away just in time to avoid a energy beam made by the Ender, and I looked up to see him hovering there, eyes bright with surprise and anger.

"Aetherman!" he screeched. " will strike you down!"

With that, he fired another beam. I got out of the way just in time, but I heard a loud crack and I glanced behind me to see one of the wall jungle trees falling. I easily dodged it. Getting onto two legs, I jumped into the air, higher than I could ever imagine. I stretched out my arm, clawing right at his chest. I landed a hit, leaving a scrape mark on the orb in his chest. He physically let out a screech of agony, falling back to the ground and clutching his chest. I landed on all fours, crouching down and letting out a hiss.

"You will pay for this!" he screamed into my mind before taking flight again into the air.

I tried to jump up after him, but it was no use. He was already too sat away. I paced around, watching him disappear into the sky.

I sat down, coming back to my senses. I was trembling, taking deep breaths. Eerste was alive. In the overworld. He was the one to make them temple crumble. And now he knew about me, and the shards.

"Lukas?" I heard Petra`s voice call. I looked up, catching their scent, which seemed familiar even though I've never smelled it before.

I took one last deep breath. I needed to warn them of Eerste as soon as possible.


	9. Chapter 9: Nobody Does Anything

I let out a sigh, trying to get the feathers on my back to lay flat. There had be be some way to tell them what I saw, but I didn't think charades would work. I tried t get up on two legs, but I found it awkward and difficult, so I switched to four. I silently headed towards where my friends` voices were coming from. As soon as I saw them, I crouched in the bushes out of sight to see what they were talking about.

"Are you sure Lukas went this way?" Petra asked.

"No, I`m not." Jesse replied sarcastically. "We're heading this way for no reason."

"Now is not the time to needle each other." Ivor growled.

I hesitated before stepping out of the bushes as they passed.

"What is THAT!?" Petra gasped, pulling out her sword as soon as she saw me. At the sight of the weapon I backed up a little and let out a hiss.

"Put that away, that`s Lukas!" Jesse snapped.

"Ohh…" With that, Petra put her sword away. This was way too familiar.

"Hmmm…. I expected bigger." Ivor shrugged. "But what shall we now now?"

"I say we head back to the temple." Jesse said. "We can't really do much at this moment."

"I had other ideas, but fine." Petra crossed her arms.

It took about ten minutes for us to get back. Jesse was in the front, Petra following closely behind, then Ivor hanging back, with me lagging far behind. I had continuously tried to stand on two legs, but it still proved difficult. I had no idea how Jesse managed to walk around when he was an Enderman. I even face planted once, which got Ivor laughing pretty hard. I had to stop myself from even hinting a lunge at him.

"We'll rest here for the night and start out again in the morning." Jesse announced once we had finally gotten back. Nobody objected.

Feeling out of place, I slinked behind a crumbled wall at the temple and took a seat. I looked up at the sky. The sun was setting, spreading a bright orange streak across the sky. Something about it made me want to run towards it and never go back…

 _Get ahold of yourself._

I shook my head. I knew the instincts were getting to my head, if they already weren't there. I stood up, my tail twitching with annoyance. For now at least I had to keep my instincts under control. I was about to get back with the others, before pain flooded over my in an instant.

I didn't scream, or make any sound. I was use to it by now. And the pain had lessened each time it happened. Within a few moments, I was human again, laying on the ground. After standing up and brushing myself off, something suddenly came to my mind. _I need to warn them about Eerste!_

I rushed to the part where my friends had started a fire. Jesse was defying a fretting Ivor who was trying to bandage his arm, and Petra absent-mindedly poked at the fire with a stick. She looked up when she heard my heavy breathing.

"You're back to normal?" she asked.

I nodded my head quickly. There was no time for chatting?

"Eerste is alive!" I blurted out.

There was silence for a second.

"What!?" Jesse burst out, jumping to his feet. His eyes were burning with shock and anger. "This had better be a joke!"

"It's not!" I put my arms up in defense. "He's the one who made the temple collapse!"

"Who is this "Eerste" person again?" Ivor asked.

"Einde's son. My half-brother. Crest's dad." Jesse explained quickly the fight at the True End.

"The guy who brought an evil god back to life-"

Jesse interrupted Petra to correct her. "Woke him up."

"Whatever." Petra shot a glare at him. "He's in the Overworld now? Alive?"

"He didn't look to good." I told her. "He looked like he just got back from a fight, and this orb in his chest was showing."

"I believe that could have been his Ender Pearl." Ivor spoke up. "A vital organ for Endermen. It allows them to teleport. Of it's broken, well, adios to them."

"That's how I killed Einde…" Jesse muttered.

Even though I didn't want to put the next part in, it was necessary.

"I… fought him." I confessed, looking away from the stares of my friends. "I didn't know what came over me. I… clawed the Ender Pearl in his chest, and it cracked. That's when he flew away."

"So Eerste is alive… and he wants to kill us." Jesse sighed. "I think we'll have a hard time collecting those shards."

"Oh yeah! Ivor! This thing…" I pulled out the relic. "Apparently shines when it's pointed to shards."

"Oh, well isn't that convenient?" Ivor looked at the relic. "Too bad Crane and the others won't have one of those."

Jesse was holding in his laugh, probably from the way Ivor said Crest's name wrong. I couldn't help but smile.

"Are we going to get back to finding a crap ton of blue pieces of rock scattered all over the world before we get mauled by a giant Enderman or Lukas turns into a mindless beast?" Petra asked us. Somehow I wasn't set off by the last part.

Jesse elbowed her. "Stop trying to take over my job."

She elbowed him back. "Well, you'll have to beat me to it to say it!"

In a moment there was a short squabble between them- not that they were mad at each other. But within a few moments, Petra had won easily thanks to Jesse only having one good arm.

"Ladies, you're both gorgeous. Now stop trying to mutilate each other." Ivor pushed the two away from each other, I couldn't help but laugh.

"We should get back to the situation at hand." I told them.

They took a moment to get off of each other.

"Can that thing work over long distances?" Petra asked.

"There's only one way to find out." I pointed the relic in one direction.

It glowed faintly. When I pointed to the left, it got slightly brighter. I turned to more, but it got dimmer. I pointed it to where it was brighter, and it lit up again.

"Well, I guess we're going this way." I said.

Jesse nodded. "Let's go."


	10. Chapter 10: All Aboard The Feels Train

"Mountains… Great." I muttered.

We were back on horseback. Jesse and Ivor shared a horse, and Ivor and I shared one. Unfortunately, the relic thing was leading us to an Extreme Hills Biome…. Which, for the record, has pretty high, steep places. Even thinking about going somewhere up high gave me flashbacks to the True End.

"You okay?"

I turned over to Petra. She was clearly worried.

"I'm fine," I told her. "I just don't like heights."

"Well no wonder." Jesse said. "I can still remember my spine feeling like it exploded after we hit the ground."

"How did you even survive that?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "I don't know. A lot of hearts?"

"We are getting fairly close to the mountains." Ivor interrupted us.

I suppressed a shudder. Even the Nether would be better than this! Okay, maybe not because that has high ledges too…

The ground started to slope up. The trees started to get fewer. Our horses were starting to have a harder time getting up the steep slope. When at the lowest ledge, I pulled the relic out and pointed in several places. The shard was straight ahead. Soon enough, our horses were no longer able to scale the rocky terrain, so we dismounted them and allowed them to run off (Thankfully they return back home every time we let them go). I looked down once to see them run, and I got light-headed immediately.

It was so far up…

If I took one wrong step, I could go tumbling down to my death…

"Stop looking down if you're afraid of heights, imbecile!" Ivor snapped at me.

I swallowed and turned back around and followed Jesse and Petra, who were already a good distance up. Once we got to a ledge, I took a deep breath. I didn't want to sit down in fear of seing the edge again. Just thinking about how high we were made me nervous.

I took the relic out again and saw that the shard was actually _below_ us.

"Ink sacs…" I muttered.

"Maybe there's a valley just over this mountain?" Petra suggested.

"I say we mine through the mountain!" Ivor announced.

"No!" I protested. "What if we mine, and the other side is closer than we expected, and someone falls-"

I did not want to take the risk of anything happening.

"We don't even have any pickaxes." Jesse said. I say we climb over the old-fashioned way."

Relief washed over me. Sure, climbing may be more dangerous, but at least you know when you're closer to the edge!

We started to climb again.

As we started to get higher, I could feel the air get colder.

"Mother of Notch!" I heard Jesse yell above me. I heard something scrape against the stone wall.

As soon as I looked up a clump of dirt fell right onto my face. I yelped, nearly losing grip of the rocky wall.

"We're under a spruce tree." Petra called down. "Some snow fell off of its branches."

 _That must mean we're at the top!_ I thought. _And the highest point…_

I felt the rock under me slope down until we were on flat ground. I stood upright and looked around. It was snowy all around, and there was a good deal of flat ground around. I looked around to see Petra help Ivor off, while Jesse was wiping snow out of his eyes. The scar running down his left eye stood out like a sore thumb against the white substance.

"Take out the rock thing again." Ivor advised curtly.

I took out the relic once again out of my inventory. It glittered in the bright sunlight. Even then, it shone brightly on it's own.

"We're close," I breathed.

I started towards the other edge of the mountain, the glow of the relic getting brighter. I could see a vast valley stretching as far as the eye could see, littered with forests and planes, even a large lake.

And it was so far down…

I felt myself get light-headed. I tried to get back, but I felt the ground under me tremble momentarily, and move. The small ledge I was on was crumbling. I was frozen in place, I couldn't force myself to move, I couldn't even scream.

"Lukas!" I heard Jesse yell.

I started to fall. I felt a hand grab my arm, pulling me back. I forced myself to turn my head to see Jesse, green eyes wide with panic. My weight was too much for him as he tried to pull me up with his good arm, but it was most likely next to impossible with his strength, or lack thereof. My eyes went down to the rock we was standing on. It was crumbling too!

Before I could warn him, the rock broke and he started to slide down the slope, my weight dragging him faster. Letting out a yelp, he grabbed onto the remainder of the ledge. I could see Petra scrambling to grab onto us, but Jesse's arm wasn't recovered enough. My eyes widened as his grip loosened, and his hand slid off of the cliff.

We fell.

I let out a scream. My heart was racing. We were going to die!

I felt something pierce into my spine, causing me to black out.

I woke up to extreme pain. I didn't open my eyes, in fear of what I would see. My back hurt like Nether. My head was throbbing.

I heard a small whimper. I opened my eyes to see my hands extended out in front of me, the gloves ripped and covered in the way too familiar red substance- blood. Well, at least I knew I wasn't dead. If only I didn't go near that ledge, Jesse and I wouldn't have fallen into who knows where-

Jesse.

I didn't know if he was alive or not.

I forced myself to my knees. I nearly collapsed again due to the horrible pain in my back. Looking around, I could see that we were at the foot of the cliff. On one side, the towering rock wall, the other side, a Roofed Forest Biome.

I heard the whimper again. I turned my head and traced the sound, and I gasped as my eyes laid on my friend.

He was on his back trapped between two rocks, blood gushing from his bad arm. His eyes were shut, and I couldn't tell if he was conscious or not.

"Jesse!" I yelled as I ran towards him. I slipped my hands under his arms and pulled him out. I crouched over him as soon as I let him onto the rocky ground. He let out a groan, blood leaking from his mouth. I shook his shoulder.

"Jesse, please, wake up!" I begged.

There was no response. I couldn't hold back the tears. I pulled Jesse into a tight hug, not caring to hold back my sobs.

Jesse was dying, and it was all my fault.

After a moment of sobbing, I could feel my hands tingle, but I didn't pay it mind at first. I didn't care about anything. I didn't want to think about anything. If Petra and Ivor came down to find Jesse dead. Or them never coming for us at all.

Suddenly, I heard a sharp gasp. It wasn't mine. I pulled away. Jesse was fighting for air, still completely limp, but breathing. His eyes opened, wide with shock. He broke into a coughing fit, sitting up on his own, letting out a shudder. He gripped his arm, which had stopped bleeding, but now it was bleeding again.

"Crap… I couldn't hold on." he breathed.

"Jesse, I…" I stuttered. It was because of me going to the edge despite not being able to stand heights that got us nearly killed.

"I… I-I'm so sorry." My voice cracked before starting to weep uncontrollably again. Jesse probably hates me now!

"H-hey!" he squeaked. He put his good arm on my shoulder. "It's fine. Mistakes happen."

I forced myself to look up at him. His eyes were filled with sympathy. I sniffed.

"I'm the reason me nearly died." I protested weakly.

"Well, we didn't die, did we?" He said.

"No…" I replied.

"Okay then." He nodded. "Hey.. where's the relic?"

I gasped. I checked my inventory. It was gone!

"Crap…" I muttered. "I let it go when we fell."

"We better look for it, then." Jesse said. He winced as I stood up.

I followed, but a lot more slowly. My back still hurt badly. Taking that out of the picture, I was suddenly exhausted, as if something drained all the strength from my body.

"I may be in the woods." I said.

"We better look there first."

"Right."

As we started towards the forest, I looked down at my hands. They still had some dried blood on them. Jesse had only awoke when I felt the tingling.

Did I _heal_ Jesse?


	11. Chapter 11: Gotta Go Fast (Or DIE)

"Can you see it?" Jesse asked from below me.

I look another fool from on top of the tree. I couldn't see the relic anywhere. I carefully climbed back down, sliding down to the bottom, landing on my feet.

"It couldn't have gone that far." I told Jesse. "The cliff we fell down didn't have many ledges down it that could knock the relic around… I just got unlucky."

"Speaking of that, is your back okay?" Jesse asked me.

My spine still stung horribly, but not so much that I move. But I was really concerned about Jesse.

"How's your arm?" I asked him.

"You sound like Ivor." Jesse said. "My arm's probably not fine, but it is right now."

"What does that mean?"

"Whatever you want it to mean."

We started to walk again. I kept my eyes open for anything that stood out against the dark colors of the roofed forest. Still, there was nothing. Even through the thick canopy of the dark oak leaves, I could see that the sun was setting.

 _Great,_ I thought. _Night time in a forest where it'll be pitch black with two injured people will be the best thing that happened to us this trip._

"Hold this."

Jesse shoved a torch into one of my hands. I almost got burned by it.

"Why do I have to hold it?" I asked.

"Because you have two working arms."

I let out a sigh, holding up the torch as the light was starting to wane. We continued to trek on, still looking for any signs of the relic.

"I don't think we'll find this thing unless we burn the whole forest down." I muttered.

"That's not a bad idea."

"Jesse!" I squeaked.

Jesse laughed. "I'm kidding."

"Geez, you have some pretty dark humor for a _hero_." I told him lightly.

He shrugged. "What can I say? Anyone who thinks I'm all sunrises and wool are wrong."

"I don't think anyone would think that with that claw mark."

"True."

Every minute felt like an hour. We didn't talk for the most part, and the last of the sunlight died away and gave away to night. It was almost pitch black save for the torch I was holding. I still had doubt that we were going to find the relic any time soon. It was silent in the forest- way too silent for me. A roofed forest like this one should be _crawling_ with monsters. I kept my eyes open. Still no sign of the relic. As time wore on, my eyes started to feel heavy. I felt like I was going to fall asleep walking when Jesse spoke up.

"Do you hear that?"

I stopped in my tracks. At first I heard nothing, but then, in the distance, I could hear the growls, hisses and shrieks on Endermen. A lot of Endermen.

"Either we're going to get the relic or we're going to kill ourselves." Jesse whispered to me.

We started to make our way towards the sounds. I was barely breathing, as if doing so would alert them all of our location. I could hear the sounds getting louder as we got closer. After what felt like forever, I could see the particles of the Endermen in the distance. I felt as if I was getting pulled there- the relic was definitely over there.

We got closer. I could see that there was clearing, with a haunting of Endermen- a gigantic haunting. There had to be at the very least twenty Endermen. Usually they'd see the light of the torch and turn towards it immediately, but they were focused on something in the middle of the clearing. It was sky blue, with a pearly texture.

It was the relic.

Something snapped in me. I felt a sudden urge to protect the relic. I needed to get the Endermen away from the relic.

I needed to kill them.

Pain washed over me like a flash flood. I collapsed onto the ground. I could feel the changes taking place, turning me into the beast that was an Aetherman. Within a few moments, I got up on all fours, letting out a hiss.

"Lukas…?"

Jesse's voice was tinged with fear. I ignored him, keeping my sights on the Endermen. I leaped into the clearing, startling the entire haunting. They all turned to me. I let out a growl, crouching down. I was going to kill them all.

I leaped onto the first Enderman. It struggled against me, and before it could teleport, I bit into its throat, killing it instantly. It despawned, leaving an Ender pearl of the ground. I brought my weight down on it with one wing, crushing it. I whirled around to see two more Endermen coming at me. I slit one in the throat with my claws, and went after the other and pinned it. I brought as much weight as possible onto it, but it teleported.

I let out a hiss as I felt something dig into my back. I reared up on my hind legs, letting myself fall onto my back, crushing the Enderman underneath and killing it.

I don't know how many I killed, or for how long it lasted. But I killed a lot of them similarly to the first three. Slitting its throat or snapping its spine. Before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of the clearing over the relic, breathing heavily. I didn't need a reflection to know I was covered in blood.

Only Jesse's voice brought me back to my senses.

"Crap, crap, _crap_!"

I turned, Jesse was quickly backing up from a tree which was going out in flames.

"I dropped the torch!" Jesse yelled at me frantically.

I panicked. The fire soon quickly spread to another tree, then to another. The entire forest was going to catch on fire!

I had to stop myself from swiping at Jesse as he ran below me and grabbed the relic, putting it away in his inventory. Thinking quickly, I bent my head down and snatched Jesse in my jaws by the torso. Ignoring the yelp from my friend, I looked around frantically. There was a part of the forest that hadn't went up in flames yet. I broke into a sprint, keeping my stomach close to the ground as I sprinted through the forest.

Soon enough, the leaves that blurred past me were burning in the flames. I felt something hit my face, and I felt pain immediately. I stopped for a split second to pat the fire on my face out before running again. I could hear Jesse coughing, but I didn't have time to worry about that. We needed to get out.

Ahead of me, I could make out the long, deep crevice of a ravine. I kept running. Just as I was about to go over the edge, I jumped, making it across easily.

My heart was racing. There was still no sign of any opening to the plains anywhere. I could feel the branches graze my back and burn it. I looked forward to see a small opening in the trees that led to darkness. I found the way out!

I broke through the last of the trees. I was met by cold air and a large plains biome stretching out in front of me. I kept on running. To my surprise, I didn't even feel in the least bit tired. I could see a large river up ahead of me, and I leapt across it and stopped at the other side. I set Jesse down, taking a look at him. He was covered in ash, but it didn't look like he was newly burnt in any places. He was coughing harshly, but I didn't know what to do about it.

I looked around. Aside from the burning forest, everything seemed to be peaceful. I brought myself over to the river and washed off the blood and ash before shaking myself, sending water droplets into the surrounding air. I looked back at Jesse. He wasn't moving. Panicking I checked if he was breathing, and he was. I felt relief flood over me. He was just unconscious-or asleep. It was hard to tell which.

I let myself collapse to my friend. I realized that I was exhausted. Soon enough, I drifted off to sleep, curled around Jesse.

I was awoken by the sun shining in my eyes. I sat up and looked around. The forest was no longer burning, and all that remained was the charred trunks and stumps. There was still some smoke coming from inside the forest.

I turned to see Jesse at the side of the river, applying a bandage on his arm. I looked down to see that I was human, and I looked up again.

"Are you okay?" I asked Jesse.

"Yeah," he replied. "The bandages just got burned off from the fire."

He let out a sigh before adding, "Why do I have to be so clumsy."

"It's not your fault," I tried to tell him. "It was kinda mine."

"Not really." he said.

We stayed silent for a moment, before Jesse took the relic out of the inventory and handed it to me.

"I think we should find a way out of this valley." he said.

"We should," I agreed.

We got up. After killing two sheep and eating, we started towards a side of the mountains that looked more lenient with the slopes. We talked occasionally, saying something about where the relic could possibly be or where Petra and Ivor would be.

We had been walking for at least four hours until I spotted two figures in the distance. I recognized them immediately. It was Petra and Ivor!

I ran over to them, Jesse following close behind them.

"Guys!" Petra exclaimed. "It's good to see you're not dead."

"We almost got dead… twice." Jesse replied.

"We saw the fire and… assumed you were dead." Ivor said.

"Well, _you_ did." Petra glanced at Ivor before looking at us. "We found this."

Petra held out her hand. She was holding a small blue shard.

"You found it!?" I exclaimed.

"It was in this cave in the side of the slope we climbed down." Ivor explained.

I took the shard in my hand, and pulled out the relic. They connected immediately with a flash of blue light. The relic was now starting to look more like a stick than a rock.

"Well, that's another one down." I murmured.

"There's a town on the other side of the mountains." Petra said. "I figured that we could go there to get supplies before we set out again."

"Well, we do need _supplies_." Jesse said. After a moment, he announced, "It's settled. We're going to the town."

"Which way is it?" I asked.

"We can show you." Petra said. "Come on, we're wasting daylight."

Petra started to walk, Jesse and Ivor following behind.

"Come on, Lukas." Petra called over her shoulder when I didn't start walking immediately.

"Okay." I took one last look at the relic before going after them.


	12. Chapter 12: Oh, Okay

"What if Endermen weren't weak to water?" Petra brought up after what felt like an eternity of silence.

"That would be horrible." I muttered, my eyes feeling heavy.

"That would be great." Jesse opposed me.

"For you, maybe, but not for everyone else." I shot at him.

"Eh." Jesse replied.

We were all exhausted, and it was in the middle of the night. It had been three days since we left the mountains, and we found only one shard since then. We were trekking through a desert biome, which thankfully is out in the open, so we would see mobs or bandits coming.

"Deserts… hotter than the nether in the day, cold as anything at night." Ivor growled under his breath.

"Hey, deserts are cool. They have… Lots of sand…" Petra yawned at the end of her sentence.

I felt like I could collapse and fall asleep right there, but the village was so close and we could sleep on beds instead of sand there. I worked against my body to keep going.

"You guys seriously have to stop getting up so early in the morning." Jesse commented. He sounded less tired.

"You're nocturnal." Petra growled.

"Is that a tower…?" I squinted my eyes at a figure in the distance.

"That's a _cactus_ , idiot." Ivor replied.

"No, it's not." Petra contradicted him. "It's too tall to be a cactus. I think that's the village!"

I felt a lot less tired suddenly. We were finally there! I ran ahead of the others, scaling a hill and stopping at the top of it. It was a tower- along with a whole village. There were few people outside, but hey, at least it was populated. Petra ran up beside me, followed by Jesse and Ivor.

"Looks run down, but doable." Ivor muttered.

"Whatever." I said. "Let's just get there and get some sleep."

We started down the hill towards the village, which was pretty uneventful.

At the edge of the village, I stopped to stretch to keep my blood going, and Ivor bumped into me from behind which knocked me over. I gave him a glare and got back up, spotting a villager stopping in his tracks to see the Order of the Stone- all of them very tired. They dashed off immediately.

"There's the inn," Petra pointed to a large building with a sign having the very creative name "Desert Inn".

I staggered through the door, followed by the others. Inside was a relatively small room, with a desk with an older person sitting at it.

"Do you have any open rooms?" Jesse asked, walking up to the desk.

"Yes, we-" The person paused, taking a look at us. "...Are you the other part of the Order of the Stone...?"

"Well, yeah, we-" Petra was cut off by the person.

"You can stay the night for free."

"Well… Okay then." Jesse shrugged.

"Room 4 and 5 are open." The person told us.

"Okay. Jesse nodded and started up the stairs, beckoning us to come with him.

"What did he mean by 'other part'?" Jesse asked as he was pulling off his armor- right in front of it.

"Can't you go into the other room to do that?" I asked. Even if it was another male, I wasn't comfortable seeing other people in their underwear.

"Too lazy to." Jesse laid the top part of his armor on the ground. "Besides, we're all men here."

"I'm not." Petra retorted.

"You're close enough." Jesse replied.

I glanced at Ivor. He was in a tank top and boxers (I still couldn't get over that), reading a book silently. I took off my jacket and folded it before setting it beside the bed I was sitting on.

"I'm gonna ask this again… What did he mean by 'other part'?

There was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it." I got up and walked over to the door. It was probably just a fan, anyways. Besides, I was the only one who still had real clothes on.

I opened the door to see, take a wild, wild guess… Crest. Jesse's annoying half-nephew/friend. There was a split second between me staring at him and me being on the ground from him barging past me.

"Jack, you're really here!?" I lifted my head to see Crest practically squeezing Jesse to death.

"You- How!?" I was pretty much in denial.

Crest turned to me, his eye bright with excitement. "Dude, we were resting here, and the next thing we know, we're told that you guys are here!"

"What a coincidence." Ivor grumbled, looking up from his book.

"Great to see you again!" Crest turned his head to Jesse who was still being constricted.

"Thanks, I was planning to destroy my lungs and you did it for me." Jesse choked out. Crest finally let go.

"Are the others here too?" Petra asked the taller kid.

"Yeah, they are." Crest's eye darkened. "Well, most of us."

We waited as Crest got the others. Within a moment, he came back in with Axel and Olivia.

We exchanged greetings, and I noticed that somebody was missing.

"Hey… Where's Em?" I asked.

I knew what happened right away when I saw the looks on their faces. Crest, for once, looked solemn as he spoke.

"Well… She's… Em is... _dead_."

The was a moment of silence. I lowered my head. I didn't talk much to Em, but she seemed like a good person. You don't exactly brush it off when someone in your team was killed.

"How… How did she die?" Jesse failed to hide the grief in his voice.

"Eerste." Crest's eye was staring past us, as if he saw something beyond us.

"Eerste… He killed Em!?" Ivor sounded as if he was in denial.

"We were in this temple… We… We were using a shard we found to track other ones." Olivia started. "I thought I saw a figure, I waved it off… But then it broke through the ceiling as Em was getting the shard. It was a huge, winged Enderman with green eyes- Eerste. He killed Em, trying to get the shard from her… She threw it to Axel before she died."

"He almost killed us all." My voice cracked. "We barely escaped in time, and when I saw him, he had one of the shards."

I spoke again when everyone was silent.

"I-If I didn't wander off in that temple back there, i-if I wasn't dumb enough to go off on my own… E-Em would still be alive."

All eyes fell on me. I fought back the tears. Everything bad that happened on this journey was all because I decided to go off and touch that feather. Because of me, Jesse probably won't ever be able to use his left arm again, and Em is dead.

"Even if we didn't go to that temple, Eerste would still be alive." Jesse told me. "He probably would've killed us all."

That still didn't make me feel any better.

"Are we going to travel together now?" Axel brought up, changing the subject.

"Obviously." Petra replied. "It would be best if we stayed in one group- so no more people would die."

"So… do you need these?" Crest asked, pulling three relic shards from his inventory. Without saying a word, I took out the relic and took the shards, allowing them to attach to each other. It was starting to curve at the top, which led me to think it would be some kind of weapon.

"We should get rest and start off again in the morning." Jesse's eyes were still dark. Everyone silently agreed.

Crest, Axel and Olivia went off to the room they got for themselves, and the rest of us got in bed ourselves. Even after maybe half an hour after getting in bed and everyone else was sleeping, I couldn't push the guilt away. I still felt responsible for Em's death- and I had a feeling it wouldn't be the only casualty.

I could hear quiet crying- I knew it was Jesse's. He was never able to take losses well. When Ellegaard died, when Reuben died, and now someone apart of the team he led was lost. I didn't say anything, since I knew Jesse hated it when anybody noticed there was something up with him. After a while, the crying stopped. I assumed he fell asleep.

I could feel a pain in my gut. I knew that the changes were coming. Silently, I got out of bed, and got to the window. Thankfully our rooms were on the first floor. I opened the window, and slipped outside. After I was fully changed into an Aetherman, I let myself rest at the window, behind the building where all the was in front of me was desert.

I had a feeling that a fight was going to come up. A bloody one.


	13. Chapter 13: Death Battle of Death

"You said Eerste has one of the shards?" Crest asked me.

I nodded. We were in a cave, taking shelter from a storm. Petra and Axel made a fire before starting to argue about something, while Olivia started heating up some leftover food, and Jesse was cowering in the back of the cave at the sound of thunder with Ivor yelling at him about it. Just another normal journey with the New Order of the Stone (plus Crest).

"So… I guess we'll have to fight that dude to get that last shard." Crest stretched out against the wall. I breathed. I knew Eerste was going to be a hard fight, especially if the only people who had any experience with him either couldn't fight or was injured.

"You still feel guilty, don't you? About Jack nearly dying?" Crest asked casually.

That made me jump. I didn't remember me or anyone else telling him that Jesse and I fell off a cliff and nearly died in the process!

"Umm… Yeah." I bit my lip. "How did you find that out?"

"I have my ways." Crest sounded as if that was a normal thing. I inched away from him.

I took out the relic and inspected it. It was long, longer than my arm span, which made me think it would be a bow. Or a staff. I'd like a bow better. It was glowing faintly. I could hear a boom of thunder from outside, and the rain became heavier. We were going to be stuck in here for a while.

"The meat's finished." Olivia announced. I looked up to nearly get hit in the face by a cooked fish.

"Seriously?" I turned to Petra with a glare, since I knew she would be the only person (besides Axel) to do that.

"You need to keep your guard up." she shrugged.

"We should think of a plan after we're done eating." Axel stated in between mouthfuls of meat. Probably one of the first things useful he said all day.

"Yeah." Olivia agreed. "We want all those shards right?" She picked a fish off of the stake (yes, we do use stakes sometimes to cook) and took a bite. I moved over to the fire and took a piece of rabbit that Axel was about to grab. I sat back down where Jesse and Ivor were and forced myself to eat the food. I wasn't very hungry, but I would worry my friends if I didn't eat.

"I say we attack Eerste and get those shards." Petra spoke up after a while of silence.

Jesse shot up immediately. "You're going up against a god."

"You went up against two." Petra shot back. She looked annoyed.

"With some help!" Jesse growled. "And I was a lot more capable at that time! And even then I nearly died."

Olivia took Petra's side. "I'll have to agree with Petra, Jesse. We all want Lukas back to normal, right? We'll have to fight him sooner or later."

"We can kill him and get it over with." Axel agreed.

Jesse didn't look too happy to see half of his friends are opposing him. "You're putting a sword to Notch's neck."

"He's weaker now, right?" Olivia questioned.

" _Still!_ " Jesse said.

"I do not think it would be best to go after Eerste at this time," Ivor spoke up, siding with Jesse. "We just suffered the loss of an Order member- it wouldn't be wise to fight right now."

" _Thank you._ " Jesse growled.

"I agree with Ivor," I said.

"You're not going to come." Petra told me. "Jesse isn't either."

"Who put you in charge!?" Jesse said.

"You're not the only one who can give orders." Petra retorted. "Just because you like to boss everybody around doesn't mean-"

"Guys, _stop_." I stood up, getting in between Petra and Jesse. They were like siblings- getting along one moment and fighting the next.

"Lukas-" Petra started, but I cut her off.

"Okay. How about _you_ try to go after Eerste," I said. "And I'll stay here with Ivor, Crest and Jesse."

"They're going to die!" Jesse raised his voice.

"They won't." I told him. I put a hand on his shoulder. "They can handle themselves."

"How are they even going to find him!?" Jesse's eyes were still blazing.

I ignored Jesse's death glare. I looked at Petra. Her expression was unreadable.

"He's in a desert biome about twenty chunks south of here." Crest said. Everybody turned to look at him.

"Okay." Petra said after a moment of silence. "Come on, guys."

She finally backed off, picked up a few things, and Axel and Olivia got up as well.

"We'll be back before you know it." Axel said, before following Olivia and Petra out of the cave into the rain.

I sat down, letting out a sigh. I looked over to the others. Crest was talking to Ivor about something, and Jesse was staring off into space, his eyes still burning. I really did hope Petra, Axel and Olivia didn't get killed. I don't think I would be able to take it if any more people died.

We sat there for what felt like forever. I shifted my position a little, and pulled out my journal. It was a different one from when we were portal hopping. I only had a few pages filled in it. I started it when we got out of the True End, and I didn't think to fill it out after I started… turning. I had filled in the missing parts of the journey so far a few days prior, and I started to write what just happened today.

 _A thunderstorm caught us off guard as we were traveling through a birch forest biome. We took shelter in a cave. Petra had the idea of fighting Eerste immediately, and Jesse opposed her. Olivia and Axel took Petra's side, while Ivor took Jesse's. I split the two apart and told Petra that she go after Eerste and I would stay with Jesse, Ivor and Crest. Crest somehow knew exactly where Eerste is- if he wasn't lying. I don't really know much about him. But so far I can tell he can read minds, since I heard him talk to Jesse in the True End. Maybe it's possible that he can sense things from far away. It's impossible right now to tell._

When I looked back up, Crest was looking at me, and I quickly glanced away. I knew he was half-enderman and all, but not even Jesse acted that weird. I took a breath. I looked at Jesse, and I could tell he was still tense.

"So…" I tried to think of something to talk about to maybe lighten the mood. "What's up with everybody?"

"I'm thinking," Ivor replied. "How long it would actually take to find the shards- and if we find them in time."

I felt my muscles tense.

"We will make it in time." Jesse snapped.

Ivor ignored him and asked me, "How many times have you turned?"

I took a minute to count. "I think… about seven."

"How long has it been since the last time you turned?"

"Last night."

Ivor paused for a minute. "Do you still have that book?"

"No." I sighed. "I left it back in the temple."

"Well… that is… _inconvenient_." Ivor sighed. "I estimate that you would most likely turn three, maybe four more times before you lose your mind."

I didn't exactly like Ivor's choice of words. I took in a shaky breath and sank back against the wall. I knew that part of being a hero was being selfless and putting others before you, but I was actually scared for my life.

"And if Petra, Axel and Olivia _do_ kill Eerste, we will be closer to preventing that." ivor finished.

 _If._ I still didn't like the idea of three of my friends going up against a literal god, even if he was weaker now.

"We'll just have to wait." Crest said.

A few minutes turned into thirty. Still, Petra, Olivia and Axel weren't back yet. Crest was tensing up for some reason beyond my understanding, and Jesse lightened up a little and tried to start a conversation with me. It eventually turned into embarrassing stories. Apparently one time Jesse got his foot stuck in between a couple of tree routes and some civilians had to help him. I reluctantly told him about the time I was snooping around Ivor's lab and got mundane potion in my eyes. And apparently I also never told Ivor about it.

Suddenly, Crest yelled out, "Axel's down!"

"What!?" I said.

Crest got up, his eye wide with panic. "Dude, he's down! My dad clawed him! We _need_ to get over there!"

Jesse was up in a second. I jumped to my feet, and Ivor got up as well.

"Where are they!?" Jesse asked urgently.

Crest started towards the cave mouth. "Follow me!"

Soon enough, we were running out of the cave with weapons in hand (well two of us had weapons at least), following Crest as he swerved past trees, never slowing for a second. Rain poured down on us. I heard the boom of thunder above us. I could feel adrenaline surge through me. Another person was going to die because of me. Axel was going to die. I felt out of breath, but I forced myself to keep moving. We needed to get to that desert biome.

Not one second too soon I could see a sea of sand just past the birch trees. I felt the slightest bit relieved, but nobody slowed down yet. We broke out of the forest biome and were now running on sand. Rain no longer pelted my back, but I was overwhelmed with the heat. Still I kept running. Crest was almost a full chunk ahead of me. He scaled a hill easily and stopped at the top of it.

He turned around. "They're right here!"

I made my way up the hill and slowed to a stop beside Crest. The three really were there. Axel was on the ground, and Petra and Olivia were crowded around him. Eerste was nowhere in sight. I stiffened up.

"Oh Notch, please no." I heard Jesse mutter. He ran down the hill towards the others. I followed behind him.

"What happened!?" I asked Olivia as soon as I got to them.

"H-he was clawed across the chest." She muttered. Her voice was shaky.

"Move it, idiots!" Ivor growled, pushing the others out of the way so that he was the only one standing over Axel.

Ivor quickly pulled out a potion and forced it down Axel's throat. He swallowed it, but it didn't seem to do anything. Ivor gave him another. We waited for a moment. Still, nothing happened. Axel's breathing was getting weaker. It reminded me of the dreadful moment when I saw Jesse close to death when we fell off that cliff. Seeing him lay lifeless, blood pooling around him. Just like this moment. I didn't want Axel to die. Suddenly, I remembered something.

"He's going to die." Petra's voice cracked with grief.

"There's nothing I can do now." Ivor sighed.

I moved closer to Axel. I put my hands on the gash where Eerste had obviously clawed him.

"What are you doing?" Olivia questioned me in between quiet sobs.

"Wait." I muttered.

I hoped to Notch this would work. We didn't need more people dead. I hoped that this could save another person's life. I tried to focus.

To my relief, I felt the tingling in my hands. I opened my eyes to see my hands emitting a faint blue light. Still, I kept focusing.

"What the nether…?" I heard Petra question.

Still, I focused completely on healing. I didn't really know why, but I felt like I already knew how to do this. I guess that's a good thing.

"The wound is… healing?" Even Crest was confused.

The bleeding slowed to a stop. Axe'ls breathing got stronger and more regular. Soon enough, the gash closed up and was reduced to a scar, only leaving his shirt ripped. I backed off. I suddenly felt exhausted- I fell onto the ground. I felt like I could sleep for years now.

"How… did you do that?" Petra turned to me, her eyes wide.

"I don't know exactly…" I breathed. "It only happened once before."

"When?" Axel asked. Everyone turned to him. He was sitting up now, looking like he just woke up from a nap.

"I'm so glad you're okay." Olivia gave Axel a hug, and so did Jesse.

"It… was when Jesse and I fell down that mountain. He was dying when I woke up. I don't really know how, but I healed him." I explained.

Everyone turned to Jesse. He shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"So you can heal?" Crest asked.

"I guess." I answered.

"That _will_ come in handy in the future," Ivor said.

"Another perk of being part monster, I guess." I said.

"That reminds me." Olivia said.

She pulled out two glowing shards. Part of the relic. I let out a gasp.

"Eerste dropped these." She said, handing them to me.

I pulled the relic out of my inventory. The two shards connected immediately, making the relic start to curve at the edges. I struggled to my feet, holding the relic out to see where the next shards would be. It didn't shine in any direction except for one- towards the setting sun. There it shone _very_ brightly.

"I have a feeling there's only a few shards left." Petra said.

"Yeah." I replied. "We might as well get moving now."

"Right." Jesse said.

And we started off again towards the sunset.


	14. Chapter 14: Convenience: The Chapter

"I think that's it! Where we'll find the last shards!"

Jesse pointed forwards. In front of us had to be the biggest temple I had ever seen. Heck, it looked a lot more like a castle! Even from here, I could tell it was largely made of quartz and prismarine. It was built atop a huge mountain. Yep, that definitely was an aether temple. Or whatever they're called. I think I like 'Aether Temple'.

"I'll finally be free from this nightmare," I muttered under my breath.

It took a while to actually get to the mountain. We had to trek through a jungle biome- a biome that isn't the easiest to navigate through. Especially when it was incredibly humid. Nobody really spoke much while walking through. The silence felt uneasy. Everyone was probably thinking the same thing as me: This is the final stretch of the journey. After we summon that Aetherman and get me back to normal, we can finally go home.

By the time we finally got to the other side of the jungle, everyone felt hot and sweaty. I looked up at the temple now looming above up. I wasn't able to see it on the other side of the jungle, but there was a staircase. A really long one. All the way up to the bottom of the temple, which had to be, at the very least, two hundred blocks from where we were standing.

Petra spoke what I was thinking. "I am getting some serious deja vu from this."

And so we climbed. A lot. Only by the time when I was halfway up I looked down and realized how far the ground was. I started to feel light headed, and stumbled.

"Watch your step." Petra told me as she caught my arm.

I took a breath in, staying close to Petra as we continued to make out way up the stairs. Now that I thought about it, it was kinda ironic. An Aetherman was made to be in the sky, right? So why didn't I like heights?

I felt like I was going to faint when we finally reached the top. In front of us was a large hallway, cracked and broken apart, looking as it had been here since the beginning of time. Now that I think about it, it probably was.

As we were walking, I paid attention to the carvings on the wall, and not whatever Olivia and Axel were arguing about. The carvings were more geometric than the ones in the End Temple, and neater. It was as if it was telling a story, each part being told through a picture as we walked past it. The first carving had one creature- I knew it was an Aetherman. The strange thing was it looked like it had long, flowing hair, and it was standing on two legs. The second picture had the same Aetherman with another Aetherman, which stood on four legs. The third carving had a tiny creature sitting under the Aetherman on four legs, with the two-legged Aetherman standing over it.

The fourth one caught me off guard. It depicted three shorter figures holding weapons, aiming them at the four-legged Aetherman, the tiny creature behind it. The fifth carving depicted the Aetherman lying on the ground. For some reason I felt like as if an old wound was opening up again as I gazed at it. The three small figures were walking the opposite direction of the Aetherman with the small creature above them. The long-haired Aetherman was crouching over the one on the ground, looking as if it was mourning. I didn't know why, but I felt upset by just looking at the two Aethermen.

Only when I bumped into the wall did I realize we were at the end of the hallway.

"You're very alert, Lukas." Petra told me sarcastically.

"Thanks," I muttered.

I quickly caught up to the others, who had gone into the open chamber that opened from the hallway.

"This is… interesting." Jesse said, looking at one of the many doorways that lined the walls.

"How are we going to find which door have the shard? Or shards." Axel said.

"With this," I told him, pulling the relic, or staff… or stick? Well, whatever it was, I pulled it out of my inventory. I held the end of it and pointed it in one direction. It glowed brightly. I started to move it right. It still glowed bright, not getting any brighter or dimming. I moved it to the left, nearly ninety degrees from where I originally pointed it. Still, it didn't change.

"Well, that's weird." I muttered.

"Maybe there's multiple shards in the temple, and we're so close to them it shines brightly every way." Olivia suggested.

"That's pretty likely," Jesse said, crossing his arms. "We should split up."

"Splitting up doesn't sound like a good idea." Petra said.

"Well, if you want to crowd everyone down one hallway at a time and make the process a lot slower, go ahead." Jesse retorted, sounding a bit annoyed.

Petra didn't reply.

"That settles it." Jesse continued. "Ivor, you're coming with me."

Ivor shrugged, rolling his eyes.

"Come on, Olivia." Petra said, motioning her to follow into the farthest door from us.

"Okay." Olivia started towards her.

"I'm going by myself." Axel said, going through the closest doorway to the right of the one we entered from.

"So that leaves me with…" I muttered.

Oh Notch. I was stuck with Crest.

"Lukas, stick with Crest." Jesse told me before I could run after Axel. "He can't fight. I'm trusting you to keep him safe."

"You want _me_ with him!?" I pointed towards Crest, not bothering to hide my dislike for him.

"Yes." Jesse said flatly.

I groaned inwardly.

"C'mon, let's check out this one!"

I turned to see Crest already at one of the doorways.

"Have fun." Jesse told me before walking towards another doorway himself.

"Trust me, Crest can actually be useful at times, surprisingly." Ivor told me before following Jesse.

I shuttered at the word 'useful' and followed Crest to the doorway, putting the relic away. I walked through it myself, taking the lead.

Crest would _not_ shut up.

"Hey, what do you think is down here? Another shard? A giant monster like that Wither thing? Or even another Aetherman!?"

"How long is this hallway?"

"Woah, these carvings are so cool!"

"Is there a shard down here?"

If it wasn't for him being Jesse's half-nephew/friend (how does he even put up with this guy!?), wouldn't mind attacking him while in Aetherman form. As we continued down the hallway, I saw more carvings on the walls. Judging by how they looked, I think it was about the war between Notch, Herobrine, the Aethermen and Einde with the Endermen. I always kinda believed Jesse when he told that story- I mean, it wouldn't be too far-fetched with him being part Enderman and me turning into what appeared to be a "good" Enderman, right?

"Dude, watch out!"

Crest's voice broke my train of thought. I heard a clicking sound, and I looked down. I had stepped on a pressure plate.

Panic rushed through me. I felt Crest grab me by the arm and yank be back just as the floor opened up to some bottomless pit.

"Woah…" I choked out. Crest had just saved me from what would probably be certain death.

"That was clo-" The last part of Crest's sentence broke into a scream as the floor below us opened, causing us to fall.

I could see the walls for a split second before the floors above us closed, leaving us falling in total darkness. I let out a scream of terror, moments before hitting the ground face-first. I got the wind knocked out of me. And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, something heavy landed on top of me. I could easily tell it was Crest by the high-pitched screams.

"Get off of me!" I growled, shoving him away.

"Hey that's my face!" His voice sounded strained, as if I was causing him pain or something. I stood up.

All I could see was pitch black. The first thing I thought of doing was getting out the relic. I took it out of my inventory, and its light was blinding now. It was enough to light up where we were.

We were in a small room, with an old wooden door on one side. There were bookshelves lining the walls, crammed with scrolls, books, papers, you name it. There was a small desk shoved against the wall littered with paper and a very old ink bottle, the contents inside long gone. Crest stood up, rubbing the side of his face where his hair covered it.

"Woah, secret book room." he breathed.

"While we're in here, we might as well look." I muttered.

I went over to the bookshelves, and took a few scrolls. I sat on the floor, the relic in front of me, and I opened one. The paper was yellowed and cracked, feeling like it could be ripped easily. The handwriting was in galactic- and studying that language in school definitely seemed to have come in handy now. What was really interesting was what it said. It seemed to be a list of powers for Aethermen. Controlled fall speed, breathing underwater, walking on water, weather manipulation, psychokinesis, the list went on. The one word that really caught my eye was "shapeshifting". I think it meant human to Aetherman, and vice versa, but it made me think. Would I be able to control when I transformed? I didn't want to try. At least not now. When I had already killed someone in the form on that… monster.

I closed the scroll and put it into my inventory. I opened the second scroll. It apparently listed abilities also, but for what looked like to be Endermen. It listed the standard teleportation, but then things mentioned started to get… interesting. It listed things like immortality, superhuman strength, night vision, psychokinesis, instant death inducing and what would most likely explain what's up with Crest, emotion and mind reading. And, as the same as the Aetherman one, it said 'shapeshifting'. I shuddered at the thought of Jesse or even Crest for that later being able to cause someone to die instantly or lift things up with their minds.

I put that scroll in my inventory too. I opened the last one. This one was a lot different.

It was written in regular english, but what was written with so strange. Subconsciously, I read it aloud.

" _These exact words will allow thee to summon and control Aethermen with the Bow of Cielo at the Foot of the Sky:_

 _The air combines with earth,_

 _For it was destined in the worlds birth,  
The trees of Minecraftia tremble before the wings of the beast.  
Let those wings beat at our feet, and the sky at our mercy,  
O, great aetherman! I succumb thee this priest!"_

I looked past the scroll to see the relic glowing even brighter. It was enough that I had to shield my eyes. After a few moments, it dimmed to its "normal" glow.

"Dude, what was that?" Crest asked. I looked up to see him standing near the bookshelves, a book in his hands.

"A sort of chant, I guess." I said. I put that scroll in my inventory also before standing up. "We should get out of here."

"Yeah." Crest muttered.

I started towards the door as I felt a slight pain over my body, which turned into a burning pain. Panic flooded over me. I was changing! I rushed towards the door and opened it quickly, running through. To my dismay, I was greeted with a dead end, and an impossibly steep cracked slope up to daylight, but there was no time. I collapsed to the floor.

"D-dude!?" I heard Crest stutter. I glanced over at him for a split second to be frozen in place, looking as if he had just seen a ghost.

The pain lasted for a few moments, before subsiding. I got up on four legs. I was an Aetherman now. I looked over at Crest, and I suddenly felt the urge to leap at him, but I kept still.

"That's so…"

Crest grinned, his eye wide.

"Dude, that's so cool!"

I took a breath in, sitting down. I actually hoped I didn't kill him out of instinct. I looked back up at the slope, and had an idea. I went over to Crest and grabbed him by the cape, and picked him up. Ignoring his yelping, I went back to the slope and started to climb. I told myself over and over not to look down. Thankfully, it was easy to climb up because of the combination of the extremely sharp claws and so many cracks and blemishes in the wall.

When I got to the top, I put Crest down and took a shaky breath in, looking back from where I came up. It was a decent-sized hole, easily big enough for a winged Enderman to fit through. It looked like it wasn't eroded, but more like broken through.

"Dude, that was really cool!" Crest said, looking excited. I rolled my eyes.

I looked around where we were. We were in another hallway. There were different carvings as well. I started to walk, and Crest followed.

We wound up back at the chamber again. Petra and Olivia were there, and Petra was holding a relic shard in her hands. She looked up.

"Olivia, Lukas and Crest are back." She nudged Olivia.

She looked up at me and her eyes went wide. "What the Nether is that thing!?"

"Lukas," she sighed. "We told you about it, remember?"

"Yeah, I know, but…" Olivia said. "I didn't think he'd be so _big_. Or colorful."

"Jesse was a lot bigger." Petra said.

I padded over to them, sitting down. Crest had to run to catch up to me.

"We found another shard," Petra said, holding it up.

I nodded, remaining silent. It wasn't like I could talk or use telepathy.

"And we're waiting for the others." Olivia said.

We sat there in silence for a few minutes, before Olivia and Petra started to talk to each other. Crest read a book that he took from that room, and I laid down. I felt exhaustion wash over me, and I dozed off.

I don't know how long it had been when I felt someone shake my shoulder.

"Hey, Lukas, wake up."

I sat upright to see Jesse standing over me. I looked down to see I was human again.

"Uhh… How long was I asleep?" I asked.

"About half an hour." Petra answered.

"And we got another shard." Axel said, holding up a small relic shard.

I stood up. Petra and Axel gave me the shards they had, and I pulled out the relic. I let the shards connect to it. It glowed a blue bright light, before dimming. The curved tips of it shot a bright light at each other, forming a sort of string made out of light.

"It's a bow," I breathed.

I looked at the others. They were all staring at me expectantly. I felt uneasy. I wasn't used to everyone expecting me to lead them or anything like that.

"There's some place we have to go to- called the Foot of the Sky." I told them.

"You mean that hallway that says "Foot of the Sky" above it?" Crest pointed to a doorway larger than the rest.

It really did say what Crest said it did at the top.

"That looks like a bunch of hieroglyphics," Olivia said.

"You guys can't read it?" Jesse asked.

"No." Axel said.

"I'm pretty sure it has a thing to do with their… blood." Ivor said.

"Well, whatever. Let's go." Jesse started towards the doorway, and everyone followed.

When we entered, we were greeted by stairs. Again. Thankfully, they weren't very long. But there was a hallway. Which was pretty long. There were no carvings. Just the distant light at the end of the hallway, and the silhouettes of my friends.

Every minute seemed to drag on like an hour. Slowly, the light got closer and closer, until we finally walked through a huge doorway and were greeted by an open sky.

We were on some form of platform. The roof was long gone, if there was one. There was this pyramid-like pedestal in the middle. I guessed that was where I had to stand.

The relic- no- bow in my hand, I walked towards the pedestal. I looked back at my friends. They stood back, watching my every move. I climbed up to the top of the pedestal, and took the bow in my left hand, pointing it up. I drew back the string, and an arrow, the same color as the string, appeared. I took a deep breath.

I wasn't able to say the first word of the chant before I felt a rumble in the ground. I looked down and saw a black tail. It met with my stomach, knocking me off the pedestal with incredible force, sending me flying. I hit the ground and slid, my whole body burning with pain.

"Lukas!" Petra ran over to me and helped me up.

"W-what's going on!?" I stuttered.

I looked up. Jesse had his sword drawn, glaring at an incredibly tall winged Enderman, a hole exposing the cracked Ender Pearl in its chest. I felt fear flood my thoughts as I recognized it immediately.

Eerste.


	15. Chapter 15: Let The Bodies Hit The Floor

Eerste was here.

Just as I thought I was going to escape from these changes.

The bow was on the ground behind the Enderman. There was no way I could get it in one piece.

I could feel burning spread through my body. I was changing. Panic flooded my mind. I couldn't change! Not now! In front of all of my friends, and especially not when I was so close to freedom! I tried to fight it. But it was no use.

"Lukas!?" Petra caught me as I started to collapse.

I grunted and pushed her away. I could feel the changes take place, and within a few seconds, the pain stopped. I got up on four legs, looking at Eerste through a glare. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Petra backing up away from me.

I leapt at Eerste, claws extended. He dodged easily, and suddenly I stopped in midair. In the back of my mind I knew he had grabbed me with psychokinesis. I flailed in midair, screeching and hissing, my mind set on tearing Eerste's throat out.

" _Pathetic."_ Eerste sneered telepathically.

"Let him go." I heard Jesse hiss.

Eerste looked behind me, and waved his arm to the side. I was thrown into a crumbled wall immediately. I let out a yelp as I felt pain shoot up my spine. I fell to the ground. Suddenly, something fell on top of me. I let out a screech. I tried to stand, but whatever was on top of me was too heavy. I could only watch as Eerste walked towards Jesse, towering over him by at the very least ten blocks. The others backed away, but Jesse held his ground.

A sort of grin spread across Eerste's face. " _Oh, if it isn't Jesse, slayer of his own family, traitor of his own kind."_

Jesse's eyes narrowed. "I'm not one of you. If you think you can defeat me, you're wrong. If I can beat your father, I can beat you."

Eerste let out a laugh. Not telepathically, but physically. It sounded like someone was scraping a sword across an iron block as hard as they can.

" _Oh, please save me that big talk, halfling."_ Eerste sneered. " _I know you're_ afraid _."_

Before Jesse could answer, an arrow hit Eerste's shoulder, sinking into his skin. Both Eerste and Jesse turned. Olivia had shot an arrow from her bow, and she was now backing up, eyes wide with fear.

" _Nuisance,"_ Eerste growled before a purple orb of light formed in his claws.

Suddenly, he fired an energy beam straight at Olivia. She just barely had time to dodge it- and she probably only did because it missed where she was standing by a few blocks. Jesse took this as an opportunity to slash at Eerste's leg. The Enderman let out a yelp, stumbling a little, before kicking Jesse away. He skidded to a stop, and even from the other side of the room i could tell his bad arm was beginning to bleed again. I was still trying desperately to get free- but I only made slight progress.

Petra drew her sword. She stabbed at Eerste's leg just as he was going to fire an energy beam at Jesse. Axel grabbed onto the other leg. Eerste spread his wings and took off about twenty blocks from the ground, Petra and Axel dropping off. Olivia fired an arrow into Eerste's wing just as he landed again. I just realized Crest was nowhere in sight.

" _You humans are so weak,"_ Eerste growled. " _It is time to stop testing, now I will dispose of-"_

"The air combines with earth…"

Eerste turned at the sound of Crest's voice.

He was standing on the pedestal with the bow. He had it aimed skyward, and was even saying the chant.

"For it was destined in the world's birth," He continued, louder.

" _Crest!"_ Eerste sneered at his son. He advanced towards Crest before being his in the head by a potion.

The Enderman stumbled and struggled to keep himself up on his feet.

I looked to Ivor. He was the one who threw the potion.

"Potion of Nausea," Ivor sneered.

"The trees of Minecraftia tremble before the wings of the beast!" Crest continued the chant. His eye was filled with determination, ignoring the fact that his father wanted to kill him.

"He's gonna do it!" Jesse gasped as he got to his feet.

"Let those wings beat at our feet, and the sky at our mercy! Oh, great Cielo! I succumb thee this priest!"

Crest let go of the bowstring. The arrow that formed shot up into the sky. Crest lowered the bow, taking a deep breath.

"It's fetching Cielo," he breathed.

" _CREST!"_

Eerste had recovered him the potion. He was now looming over Crest ominously. Crest only looked up at him.

" _What have you done!? You are my son, you are supposed to obey ME! Not help these pathetic creatures!"_ Eerste was fuming. " _Give me the bow._ I _will control the Aethermen!"_

"Guess what!?" Crest growled.

"You…"

He took the bow in both hands.

"Don't…"

He brought the bow down to his knee, pushing with all of his might.

"You don't _control_ me!"

The bow snapped like a twig. The two pieces fell to the ground before despawning in a blue light. Crest stood there for a moment, looking at the ground, breathing heavily.

"You can't control anyone anymore," he muttered.

There was a single second before Eerste brought his hand up and swatted him. Crest went flying. He went right through a pillar. I could see the blood trail behind him before he hit the ground and skidded, heaving a river of blood in his wake.

He lay there for a moment. His hair was away from his face, revealing an old burn scar where his eye should have been. His remaining eye was dull and lifeless.

His body disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind his inventory.

Crest was dead,

He gave his life for me.

Why have I always hated him?

" _NO!_ " Jesse screamed out.

Eerste looked at the trail of blood before turning to Jesse.

"You…" Jesse hissed.

The others, who were around him, started to back away as he collapsed on all fours. A black patch appeared on his left arm and spread rapidly.

"You are going to _PAY_ for killing him!" Jesse yelled out at Eerste, who was only looking without an expression at him.

" _I WILL make you suffer!_ "

The blackness covered Jesse completely, and he grew. Two huge feathered wings formed from the blackness, folding behind him. His hands turned into claws, and particles surrounded him. When the blackness faded away, instead of armor there were jet black feathers. Jesse opened his eyes, revealing they were bright green with slit pupils, and burning with hatred.

Jesse had turned into an Enderman.

Eerste had literally no time to react before jesse leapt at him on all fours. He barreled the larger Enderman over, sinking his teeth into the hole in his chest. Jesse pulled. A tearing sound that would have made me sick in human form could be heard as the Ender Pearl came out from Eerste's chest. As soon as he had pulled it out completely, Jesse bit down, shattering the orb.

As the shards fell onto Eerste, his body cracked, exposing light, before exploding with a burst of energy. Nothing was left behind.

Seeing the new threat, I tried harder to escape. The rock on top of me got looser until it rolled to the side, and I stood up. I stepped forward, hissing at Jesse.

His eyes laid on me and he gave a roar. I could see our friends backing away into the hallway. They knew what was going to happen.

We circled each other, eyes fixed on the other beast. It was quiet for a minute, with only the sounds of our growling and the claws clicking against the stone floor.

Jesse started the fight as he charged at me with incredible speed, mouth wide open showing razor sharp teeth. I moved out of the way and bit into his side. He let out a yelp and twisted, clawing at my face. I felt a sharp pain across my face, and I let go.

"They're going to kill each other!" I heard Petra scream.

I leapt at Jesse I tackled him, but I pushed him off easily. I spotted his bad arm, there were no feathers there, only the burned flesh. I lunged at his arm, biting down on it. Jesse let out a screech, trying to pull away, but I held on. I tossed him aside, and he skidded, landing on his stomach. I leapt on him again. He was trying to throw me off. I kept him pinned, and I sank my teeth into one of his wings. I started to pull.

Jesse's growls of anger soon turned into deafening screeches of pain as I kept yanking on his wing. I heard the bone crack, and soon enough, the flesh started to rip too. Jesse was flailing, trying to get away. But I wouldn't let him. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to _kill_ him.

I pulled the wing completely off, tasting the blood. Where I had pulled the wing off there was a huge wound, blood pouring from it. Jesse was barely moving now. I grabbed him by the scruff, and dragged him to a open part of the platform where there was a waterfall. Holding his scruff tight in my jaws, I threw him off, watching as he screeched before falling into the lake below.

I felt triumph for a split second. I had kill the enemy. I had killed Jesse.

I had killed Jesse.

I had killed my friend.

Fear flooded through me, the rational part of my mind taking over. I could hear my friends' voices.

"Lukas just killed Jesse!"

"Are sure that's still Lukas!?"

"W-we may have to-"

I jumped. I felt light-headed, but I let myself fall towards the lake. Jesse couldn't be dead now. There had to be time. I held my breath as I hit the water, falling into the lake. I could see perfectly in the water. I looked around frantically. Jesse was nowhere in sight. Panic flooded through me. It was too late. Jesse was dead. But then I saw the blood.

I could barely see Jesse's figure through the mass of blood. It wasn't just coming from where I had pulled off his wing or his arm. It had to be all over his body. I swam towards him at a speed that even surprised me. I grabbed him by the scruff and swam towards the surface. I managed to get my head out of water, and I glanced around. I saw the shore, and swam towards it. Soon enough I could feel sand under my feet and I walked out of the water, dragging Jesse. He left a trail of blood as I dragged him fully out of the water. I had the urge to kill him. To slit his throat or watch him bleed to death. But I couldn't. Crest had already died because of me.

I couldn't let Jesse die too.

I turned him over onto his back. He was barely breathing. I put my front claws on his chest. I really hoped that this would work while I was in Aether form. I focused on healing Jesse. Soon enough, I felt the tingling in my hands… or claws. But it wasn't enough. I focused harder. Soon, I could feel Jesse breathing more normally. I sighed with relief.

I looked back up at the temple. I saw the others up there. They backed away from the edge, out of my sight.

I knew I couldn't be around them anymore. Two, maybe three deaths had happened because of me. I looked to the birch forest biome that laid only a few hundred blocks away. I looked one last look at Jesse's bloody unconscious body, before running for the woods.


	16. Chapter 16: Hello Darkness My Old Friend

I let out a shaky sigh, looking down at my bloodied claws. I was trying to take what happened in. Crest had died, Jesse killed Eerste out of pure rage, and I ripped off Jesse's wing. And he was probably dead.

I had denied it for a long time. I had told myself it wasn't true, but there was no pushing it away now. I was a monster. A cold-hearted, murderous monster. I bet my friends hated me now. I killed our leader! I didn't deserve to be helped, my friends shouldn't have even started the journey to find those shards. It only killed those close to me.

I could still feel the dull pain on my face from where Jesse scratched me. My arms- or wings- hurt too- because I had clawed them. I looked out the mouth of the cave. The forest was incredibly quiet, and I was a good deal away from the temple. I rested my head on my wings. I hoped the New Order never found me. I hoped I would die here alone, as I should.

I didn't know how long I was laying there. And I didn't care. The only sound I heard was the rustling of leaves from the trees outside the cave. The only thing I saw was the opposite wall of the cave as I stared. And the only thing I felt was guilt and pain.

I laid there for a long time. I didn't know how long, nor did I care. I was waiting to die. From infection or starvation. Either was painful, enough, so it didn't matter to me. But soon enough, I heard voices. They were faint at first, but they slowly grew louder.

"Lukas? Lukas, where are you?"

It was Petra's voice. I froze. They were trying to find me. Did they want to kill me? I sure hoped so.

"Lukas, wherever you are, stop hiding! We're here to help you!"

I quickly got up. She coming closer. I couldn't let her. Slowly, I limped out of the cave, looking around. The voices were coming from behind it. I started to run. But the cuts on my wings were really painful. I was forced to slow down to what was more of a trot. As I kept going, I started to get lost in thought. Maybe if I went far enough, I could die alone and they wouldn't have to find my inventory.

I kept thinking. Of ways I could possibly die or different scenarios of the New Order finding me and killing me or abandoning me. Or me killing another person. I shuddered. Suddenly, I couldn't feel the ground under me, and my train of thought was broke. I let out a screech as I fell.

I hit the ground with a loud thump. Getting up and looking around, I saw that I was in a ravine. I tried to walk, but pain shot up one of my back legs. I yelped, and laid down. I sighed. It didn't matter if my legs was injured. I was gonna die anyways.

But I still heard the voices.

"He couldn't have gone far, could he?"

An unfamiliar voice, telepathically, replied.

" _Of course not. I am able to sense… what has his name again?"_

"Lukas."

" _Yes, right. Lukeus! I can sense him."_

I backed up into the wall of the ravine. I looked around for a cave, anything to hide me. But there was nothing. I was completely screwed.

I crouched there, my heart racing. I wanted to get out. I wanted to run away. But I couldn't.

" _He is right…"_

I let out a whimper.

" _Down…"_

I could feel the feathers on the back of my head stand on end.

" _Here!"_

Something looked down from the top of the ravine. I recognized it as another Aetherman immediately. Petra also looked down.

" _Oh, yes! There he is."_

The Aetherman got up, and… levitated down. Literally levitated down. The first thing I noticed about him is that he had four arm-wings instead of two. I also saw he had this _really_ long "hair" made up of looked like to be made of long, flexible feathers. A metal band kept it together in a ponytail. He had two tails with a golden tuft of fur at both ends, fading into a purplish-pink. He also looked like he would stand on two legs. This guy had to be Cielo.

"Can I get down?" Petra asked. She was still at the top.

" _Not yet."_ Cielo said as he landed.

I backed up, letting out a growl. Fear blocked all rational thoughts.

" _Lukeus, my son! It has been an incredibly long time. How are you doing?"_ Cielo said.

I hissed.

" _Oh, yes. Right. The… prophecy."_

I was suddenly lifted off of the ground. I flailed in mid air, letting out a screech. Cielo still remained calm. Suddenly I was frozen in place. I couldn't move. Cielo moved towards me and put a hand on my chest.

" _This will only hurt a little,"_ He said.

A light shined from his hand, and a sharp pain spread across my body almost immediately. I let out a screech. The light got brighter until I couldn't see anything. Suddenly, the pain stopped. The light dimmed. Sweat was rolling down my face. I don't need to look down to know I was human again.

I couldn't feel the urges anymore. To kill, or to run, or the the dread of waiting for when I was going to turn again. I felt myself fall, but I got caught in two of Cielo's arms. I suddenly felt so weak. The pain in my arms got to me, and I fought to hold back the tears.

Cielo levitated himself back up to the top of the ravine and set me down.

"Lukas!" Petra ran over to me and pulled me into a tight hug.

I didn't respond. I had killed three of her friends, why was Petra worried about me? Why did she care?

"Oh my Notch Lukas, you scared us so much!" She pulled away and looked at me.

"But… I killed him." I murmured.

"What do you mean?" Petra looked confused.

"Jesse!" I blurted out, finally breaking into tears. I looked away. "I-I killed him!"

"Jesse's not dead." Petra told me.

"W-what?" I looked back at her. I could see concern in her eyes.

"Jesse's not dead," she repeated. "Cielo healed him. But… his wing's gone."

I stayed silent, taking what she said in. If Jesse was alive, he had to hate me. Because of me, he would never be able to fly again. And why did Cielo heal an Enderman…?

The Aetherman crouched down next to me. He picked me up with psychokinesis, which made me yelp.

" _Your wounds still need healed,"_ Cielo said.

As Cielo was using healing magic on my arms, Petra explained to me what happened.

"We got to the bottom as soon as we could. When we got down there, Jesse was close to death. Ivor did everything he could, but it was no use. Then suddenly, Cielo literally fell from the sky. He was going to attack Jesse, but we talked him out of it."

" _Why are you_ friends _with one, anyways?"_ Cielo asked.

"He only found out a month ago," I breathed.

Petra continued, "Jesse was really worried when he woke up. He tried to get up to look for you himself, but… you know how that would end."

I shuddered.

"So I looked for you. ...With Cielo… Who's your dad, I guess."

I looked up at Cielo. He was still healing the wounds on my left arm. It was kinda weird to think about. I met my real dad. Who's a twenty block tall monster with four arms and really long hair. At least my dad isn't Einde.

" _All finished,"_ Cielo said, setting me down.

I stumbled a little. I looked at my arms. All that were left of the wounds were faint scars.

Petra grabbed my hand and started walking, dragging me along with her. "Come on, let's get back to the others."

The walk back was pretty uneventful. Nobody said a word. I was thinking about what my friends would say when they saw me. They obviously wouldn't forget that I ripped off Jesse's wing and nearly killed him. But Petra _did_ say Jesse was worried about me. I would only have to wait and see.

We finally got to the "camp". Axel and Olivia were sitting down at a fire that they made, and Ivor was leaning against a tree, reading a book. All three looked up at me. Axel and Olivia ran over to me.

"Lukas, you're okay!" Olivia said.

"We were getting worried you died or something." Axel said.

"Yeah…" I looked away. "Uhh… where's Jesse?"

" _I'll_ show you," Ivor closed his book and walked over to me.

He started walking away for the camp, beckoning me. I followed him. We went a short ways into the woods to a cave. The camp was still visible nearby. The inside of the cave was lit up by several torches, and a fire had been made in the middle. In the back of the cave was a large dark figure- Jesse. He was curled up, his remaining wing folded against his back. It looked like he was asleep.

"I will give you two privacy," Ivor said, walking out of the cave.

I took a deep breath and walked towards my friend.

"Jesse?" My voice was shaky.

Jesse's eyes opened, and he stretched slightly before getting into a sitting position. Luckily the cave roof was high enough for maybe even Cielo to stand up straight inside.

" _Lukas…?"_ Jesse asked telepathically, looking down at me.

I tugged at my jacket out of discomfort. Not that he was upright, I could finally get a good look at Jesse. He looked a lot smaller and weaker in Enderman form than he did in the True End. His bad arm was bandaged again. His eyes were what startled me. Instead of being bright and lively, like they used to be, they were now dull and lifeless- I would have felt better if I had seen his eyes burning with hatred.

Jesse let out a sigh and shifted his position so that he was sitting beside me. I sat down as well, looking at the ground.

" _Heh… Your dad doesn't like me much."_ Jesse said.

"Yeah," I muttered. "I guess I can see why."

We stayed silent for a moment.

"I… I'm really sorry about what happened at the temple," I started. "It's… It's my fault that Em and Crest died. And… Because of me…"

I started to tear up again.

"Y-you won't be able to fly _ever_ again!"

I couldn't keep myself from sobbing. I buried my face into my knees. I couldn't believe myself. I just ran off and worried all of my friends, who are apparently stupid enough to care about me in the first place, and now I'm whining about it to someone who I attacked as a monster.

" _Lukas."_

I looked up at Jesse. He kept his gaze on me.

" _None of those deaths are your fault. Eerste was the one who killed Em. And Crest… He… he gave his life so you could be fixed. He did that_ willingly _."_

I could see he was holding back tears at the mention of Crest.

" _I forgive you."_

I couldn't believe my ears. I stared at Jesse.

" _I know you weren't in control when you ripped off my wing. Heck, I attacked you too!"_

I remained silent.

" _But… I… I have to thank you for saving me back there."_

"From… from what?" I stuttered. I wiped the tears away.

" _From drowning. I would have bled out if you didn't drag me to the shore."_

"But… I'm the one who threw you off the cliff," I sniffed.

" _So? You fought against your instincts to save me. And… I appreciate that."_

Suddenly, I felt myself being picked off the ground. Jesse pulled me into a hug. I hugged him back, trying to not start crying again.

Being hugged by a giant Enderman feels weird. Imagine you're hugging your pet wolf, but it's taller than you and has feathers instead of fur.

I heard claws click against the stone floor. I turned to see Cielo walking inside.

" _Lukeus, I need to have a talk with you."_ His eyes were dark as he motioned me to come forward.

Jesse set me down as I said, "I'll be back."

I followed Cielo out of the cave.


	17. Chapter 17: Dad And Edgy Son Talk

**A/N: Omg, I'm sorry that this was glitched out. ^^;**

 **Good thing I write these things in Docs. Well, anyways, here's the non-glitched out chapter!**

"What is it?" I asked Cielo.

He led me over a ways from the camp, partially into a plains biome. I didn't really know what I was going to hear, but I felt it was going to be a bad thing. About me having to leave my friends? About the fact that Jesse's part Enderman? I held my breath.

"Take a seat," He sat down on the grass, crossing his legs. I sat in front of him.

I shifted uncomfortably. I just wished he'd tell me exactly what was wrong and be over with it.

 _"Lukeus-"_

"My name is Lukas." I corrected Cielo.

 _"Lukeus, as you know, I am indeed your father."_ he said. _"...You do know that, right?"_

"Yeah." I said.

 _"Do you remember… Anything? From your fledglinghood?"_

"Fledglinghood?" I asked.

 _"Childhood. Do you remember anything from your early childhood? Such as… other Aetherman?"_

"No," I replied, shifting uncomfortably. "What do you mean?"

 _"Do you remember being… Taken? By humans?"_

"No…?"

 _"How did you grow up?"_ Cielo asked me.

"I…" I thought for a moment. "I was in an orphanage until I was adopted at five years old. My foster parents homeschooled me, until went off to live with some former friends at sixteen. We had a rivalry with Jesse and his friends up until about over a year ago, when this huge wither ate a lot of the world… we stopped it. And I've lived with Jesse and the others ever since."

We were both silent for a moment. I scratched my head. Why did Cielo want to know all this? To catch up on what he missed the past eighteen years of my life?

 _"I think that you should be able to know exactly where you came from."_

I looked up at Cielo.

 _"You see, you were never supposed to be human at all."_

"What!?" I blurted out. "What do you mean 'not supposed to be human'? I'm at least half human, right?"

 _"Well, technically speaking, yes. But you originally were a full-blooded Aetherman."_

I froze. I was never supposed to be human…? Then why was I human? I was never supposed to be here in the Overworld!

"Then… what happened?" I asked, my voice shaky.

 _"Well, you see, it happened, wait, what form of time do you use again?"_

"Years?"

 _"Ah, yes. About eighteen years ago, I found this very… special Aetherwoman. She was beautiful, and smart. Well, smarter than most Aethermen today- they mostly act like animals! Anyway, she and I had a child. Which was you."_

I took a breath, trying to process this information. I'm supposed to be a full Aetherman. A monster.

 _"You were very energetic! We could barely keep track of you. Always trying to jump off of floating islands before you could fly!"_

I shuddered, thinking of myself jumping off an island almost falling to my death. What was I thinking as a little kid!? Fledgling!? Whatever I was!?

 _"Well, that all changed when you were about five months old."_

I listened.

 _"Three… No, four humans somehow got into the Aether. They were holding this glowing rock and piece of metal. I do remember one had this purple robe, while another one, a female, had this most unnatural blue hair I was pretty sure another one was an Ender Demigod, her eyes had green slit pupils. But what was strange was she had red hair."_

"The Old Builders…" I muttered.

 _"Those were their names? Well, they looked pretty young to me."_

"It happened eighteen years ago, right?"

 _"True. Anyways, they… They attacked your mother, and killed her. I tried to fend them off, but their weapons were too strong. They took you."_

Well, I think life was officially a lie. Apparently I'm not supposed to be a human and the Old Builders abducted me. I tugged on my jacket sleeve.

 _"I knew an Aetherman, my own son especially, could not be in the hands of humans. I… used my power to make half of you human. I made sure you would turn to a human form as soon as you left the Aether. I do not know what happened to you then."_

I stayed silent. At least I knew exactly where I came from now. But… where did i belong? The Aether? The Overworld? I was so confused. I stared up at Cielo, and he stared back.

"One of my friends… Well, he wasn't really my friend, but he… He shot your bow to summon you. But.. then he got killed by an Enderman."

 _"Enderman!?"_

"Eerste."

Cielo was silent for a moment, before snapping. "Eerste is supposed to be in the End! Trapped permanently!"

"The End is… destroyed." I said, looking away for a moment.

 _"That can only be possible if Einde is dead as well."_

"Einde's dead. Eerste's dead also."

 _"Well, I mean, that is good, but, who killed them!?"_

"Jesse."

Cielo stared at me for a moment. _"You are kidding."_

"I'm not. He killed Eerste and Einde."

 _"An Endergod would not kill one of its own! Endermen are evil, they want the destruction of the Overworld, you should know know that."_

"Cielo."

I stood up. It probably wasn't a good idea to disagree with a literal god, but I had enough of this.

"Jesse only found out he was part Enderman a month ago. Before that, he helped people. He even saved the world! And even after he found out, he still wanted the Overworld to live on. He could have easily helped Einde to destroy the world!"

I turned away momentarily, taking a breath in. I turned back to my dad.

"The person who shot the bow was also part Enderman. He… He didn't want me to turn into a mindless animal, no offense. He broke the bow so that Eerste couldn't control any Aethermen with it."

 _"Wait… He… Broke the bow!?"_

"Yeah."

 _"DON'T YOU KNOW THAT WILL DESTABILIZE THE ENTIRE DIMENSION OF-"_

Cielo was cut off by a loud screech as an Aetherman leapt out of the woods, right at me. Before I could let out a scream, Cielo jumped up and held out an arm, freezing the Aetherman in midair with Psychokinesis. He threw it approximately ten blocks before it hit into a tree and went limp, despawning, leaving behind several of its golden feathers and a blue shard.

Cielo looked at me. _"Breaking the bow destabilizes the entirety of the Aether- It's falling apart, and its creatures will be spat out here!"_

"Aethermen will kill most, if not all of the human race, right!?" I asked quickly.

 _"That is correct- and there's a lot more Aethermen in the Aether than there has been in the Overworld thousands of years ago."_

"We… We need to get my friends!"

 _"Why!?"_

"You can't take all of them alone, right? Let alone find them all before they kill people!?"

Cielo let out a sigh. _"What can humans do to help?"_

"A lot," I told him. "We've defeated a huge Wither that could have destroyed the world easily!"

 _"...Fine then."_

"Alright then," I said. "Come on, we need to go now, before any more of these Aethermen spawn!"


	18. Chapter 18: Not An Actual Update

**A/N:**

Hey guys. Sorry for not updating this in a long time. TBh I've just been both very lazy with this with moving from Pennsylvania all the way to Texas, and because I didn't really know how to write the next chapter.

Anyways, I'm going to rewrite Son of the End. There's several things that can be changed and improved, such as giving Crest and Mitera more development and character, making Einde a lot more intimidating (He IS a demon god thing after all), adding more events in general, and taking out POV switches.

And since I'm rewriting Son of the End, I'll probably have to rewrite Aetherman too, rip.

But, I hope you guys will really enjoy the new and improved SotE!

Also, so this update won't be against Fanfiction's rules, I present to you a completely unrelated story, but I hope you guys will find it interesting. Enjoy.

* * *

"Crap, it's beginning to be dark." Axel muttered under his breath.

Jesse looked to the sky. It was dyed an orange with the sunset behind them. They were going to have to get to a shelter soon. He looked at his other friends around him. Petra was silent in the front, followed closely by Lukas, and Olivia was right beside Jesse. He took a breath in, pushing aside a low-hanging tree branch as they squeezed through the shaded birch forest.

Every second seemed to stretch on. The air seemed to get more humid by the moment. Jesse felt like he could literally drink the air with how humid it was. He could feel something wet trickle down his face- he wasn't sure if it was sweat or water from the air. He craned his neck to look up at the sky and bit his lip as he could see dark clouds swirling above the land, threatening to rain at any moment. The brunette looked back down and glanced at his surroundings and spoke up.

"Does anybody have any wood for a shelter?"

"No, we don't even have tools besides weapons." Olivia sighed.

"Great," Jesse muttered under his breath before raising his voice to a normal level. "It's going to rain and it's dusk out; we really need a shelter."

"There's nothing around here except for trees." Petra growled. "It would be a miracle if we found even a cave!"

And so they kept walking. The ominous feeling in Jesse's gut only got less easy to ignore as the landscape around them was momentarily dyed pink with the last of the light from the sun before going dark. There was no sound except for the brunette and his friends. Not even a cricket, or the sound of wind. Just them. Jesse felt as if he and the other Order members were the last things alive, walking through the silent forest.

The sound of thunder interrupted Jesse's train of thought. He glanced up at the sky as he felt something cold hit his head. He felt the sensation a few more times before it started to pour. The brunette wiped the longer hair out of his face as it became matted and fell over his eyes. Still, nobody said a word. Jesse exhaled quickly as water filled his nose. He hated trips like these, with the bad weather.

"Skeleton!" Jesse suddenly heard Lukas' voice cry out.

"Ow!" Petra yelped. Jesse knew that she had been shot.

Jesse drew his sword. The glow of its enchantment lit the surrounding area and dyed it a pale silver. Still, he couldn't see any mob. He glanced momentarily at Petra. Relief washed over him as he saw that she pulling the arrow out of her shoulder, instead of somewhere more vital like her chest.

Jesse had just enough time to duck as another arrow flew towards his face. He felt a sharp pain in his knee.

"We can't fight them when we can't see them. Just run!" Jesse called to his friends.

Everybody obeyed. They took off in front of him, but the brunette struggled to keep up with them. He didn't have time to pull the arrow out of his knee, let alone tend to the wound. He pushed away the thought of him being shot somewhere that would kill him because he couldn't go fast enough.

"Come _on_ , Jesse! You said run, so _run!"_ Jesse felt Petra hand grab his arm and pulled him along, and Jesse was going as fast as he could to just barely keep up with her. Jesse quickly put his sword away. He heard Axel cry out just ahead of them. He had gotten shot as well.

Jesse could barely see with the rainwater in his eyes. He wiped his face as he heard somebody yell in front of him:

"I see a house!"

Jesse looked ahead of him. There really was a house- well, it was much more like a mansion. The faint outline loomed over the like a titan. It was just up a hill.

Olivia was the first to get up, quickly followed by Lukas and Axel. Petra was trudging up the hill, one arm around Jesse. She stumbled at the top, and Jesse saw one last arrow land a few feet away from Lukas.

"Get inside, quick!" Lukas ran to two large doors under a wide porch. He pushed them open quickly and moved aside to let everybody else in.

Petra helped Jesse inside before Lukas came in and shut the doors behind him. Jesse collapsed to the ground, breathing in heavily. He looked at his leg. The arrow had snapped in half, but the head remained lodged in his knee. Shooing off Olivia, he put a hand around the arrowhead, and took a breath in before pulling. He winced in pain and had to look away as he felt it move. He was able to pull it out, and he looked back to see blood start to leak from the wound.

Olivia tended to everyone. She pulled out the others' arrowheads and cleaned and bandaged their wounds, and did the same to Jesse's. The brunette mustered up the courage to stand up. The wound stung, but not enough to keep him off of his feet.

He looked around the building they had stumbled into. They were in a large lobby area with a tall flight of stairs leading to a hallway, with spider webs covering a lot of places like white sheets. The only light source was the momentary flashes of lightning from outside.

"I guess we're stuck here for now." Jesse murmured. He quickly pulled out an unlit torch and ignited it, filling the room with a warm light.

"I wonder what's in here," Petra got onto her feet and made her way towards a hallway, ripping down spider webs as she went to the doorway.

"Where are you going?" Lukas called after her.

"To _look_. It's just a dusty old mansion. And I'll only be a minute." Petra tossed the words over her shoulder as she walked into a hallway.

"I'll go with her," Jesse said quickly to his friends before shoving his torch into Axel's hand, lighting another, and hurrying after the redhead as fast as his injured leg would allow. He ignored Olivia's protests as he went into the hallway.

He didn't know if it was just his imagination or if it really did get a lot colder as Jesse and Petra went deeper into the hallway. It was summer out, so this place should feel like the Nether, Jesse thought. Petra didn't seem to be bothered by the cold. The only light source down here was the torch- he couldn't even see the light coming from the main room. Yet they kept walking. Jesse noticed that the hallway seemed to be _way_ longer than it should have been- but Petra didn't stop.

"Maybe we should turn back," Jesse suggested. "I'm sure the others will be worried if we don't get back to them soon."

"I just wanna see what's at the end of this hallway." Petra's voice sounded monotone. She didn't even turn towards the brunette. Jesse gulped and continued to follow her, struggling to keep up with her fast pace.

It felt like an eternity. The air around Jesse kept on getting colder and colder until he felt like he could freeze to death right then and there. Still Petra kept pressing on. As if something was pulling her. Jesse shivered. When the heck did this hallway end!?

"There's something here." Petra's monotone voice didn't change, but she stopped. Jesse felt relieved that he was finally able to catch his breath, but the way Petra was acting threw him off.

"This hallway is really long." Jesse panted.

"It never ends." Petra replied in a dark voice.

"What?"

"You'll be trapped here forever."

Jesse flinched. He didn't know exactly how to react. Petra didn't act like this. She wasn't supposed to act like this. This _wasn't_ Petra.

"What do you mean!?" The brunette exclaimed.

"Goodbye." Petra's- no, _whoever_ this person was- their voice was so robotic that it scared him.

Jesse turned to run. His leg was slowing him down. Suddenly, he could no longer feel solid ground below his feet. He looked down. The floor was gone! All that was left was a pitch black void.

He fell.

He turned to see Petra for a single heartbeat. The only things he could catch was that she was smiling. And her eyes… Her eyes….

Jesse's vision went black.

The first thing Jesse felt when he woke up was cold. Maybe he left the window open in his room. They were supposed to be going on a journey today, why did nobody wake him? It was probably already half past noon!

Then he remembered everything. The skeletons. The house. Petra's face as he fell.

Jesse's eyes shot open.

Everything around him was dark. But he could see he was in a cave. The floor was littered with mob bones, and human bones. It made him shudder. Up above, he could see there was an opening, but it went up so high that he could not see the top. As he sat up, he felt as if every bone in his body was shattered, but he was completely fine physically. But it still hurt. The wound on his knee was stinging more than ever. And his head was pounding like Nether as well. He stood up. There didn't seem to be an opening around him- but he didn't have much time to look before something tackled him from behind.

"Oh, what do we have here?" The voice was female, but sounded inhuman. Jesse could barely turn his head to see something that made his heart skip a beat.

What loomed above him was a huge dragon-like head, but it had a human face- only the skin was replaced with blood red scales. Burning blue eyes seemed to stare directly into his soul. Ram-like spiral horns sat on top of the thing's head. Massive bat-like wings were folded behind it and they connected to a body much like the Ender Dragon's only with the same blood red scales and a leaner build, but much, much more massive. It was pinning him down with one forepaw.

Jesse tried to scream out for help. He was scared. He had dealt with the Wither Storm, which was a lot bigger and probably more destructive than this… this _demon_ , but something about it made him feel defeated.

"A human…?" The beast questioned. "And… a _hero_? Why, what a rarity."

Jesse didn't know whether it was the fact that it knew about him being a hero or its voice alone scared him more. The monster's mouth spread into a grin, showing pure white razor-sharp teeth. Jesse let out a muted scream and tried to struggle free of its claws, but it only pressed down harder.

"Hmmm... " The beast pondered to itself. "I'm sure its bones would be very delicious, but this one is special…"

Jesse didn't want to hear this thing's voice any longer. He just wanted to be back with his friends, and safe. He felt so weak and fragile now under the demon's gaze.

"You don't want to hear anymore? I can arrange that."

What followed the beast's words was a deafening screech- _literally_ deafening. It was so loud. He didn't even know anything could make a sound like that. Jesse let out a scream as he felt a sharp pain in his ears, and he covered them with no luck to block out the sound. Then, the screeching seemed to get quieter, then he heard silence. Complete silence. It hit Jesse. Not only could it read his thoughts, but it made him deaf within a moment. At first he was in denial. It probably stopped screeching. But when he tried to yell out for help, he heard nothing. He let out a soundless sob, and tried to fight the tears but failed as they escaped his eyes.

He didn't escape the demon's voice as it came into head.

" _Your friend did a good job of bringing you here. How about I make you one of my own?"_

Jesse couldn't think straight enough to comprehend what the demon said.

" _No response? That's not very fun."_

One of the demon's claws raked down Jesse's spine. The brunette let out a scream that he couldn't hear.

" _You're going to be one of my creations. One of my children."_

Jesse clawed at the ground, longing to be able to get up and run. He was going to die. There was no escape. He would be mauled to death by this monster.

" _Now, my child…"_ Jesse felt the beast's breath on his already badly stinging back. " _Change."_

For a few moments, nothing happened. Jesse was still trembling and sobbing, and he couldn't think straight.

Then, suddenly, he felt pain. The demon lifted its forepaw off of him, but it was nothing compared to the horrible stinging he felt in his whole body. He felt something snap in his legs, but his vision was too blurred to see what was happening. He let out screams for somebody, _anybody_ , to help him. His arms collapsed under him as he tried to stand. He couldn't feel his legs. He was going to die. This was the end. He couldn't even say goodbye to his friends…

Every second felt like an hour. The pain still didn't stop. He felt things snap, split open, or puncture all over his body. And it hurt like Nether. He lay there in agony. For some reason he couldn't feel his armor, but something else he couldn't name at the moment. He shivered from the cold, and the movement sent pain up his spine. His eyes were burning. He could barely see. He coughed up what he assumed was blood and let out a soundless groan.

" _Feeling better, my child?"_

Jesse felt something large run down his back. He knew it was the demon's paw. He shuddered, clawing at the ground in an attempt to drag himself away from it. His hands felt strange. His whole body felt as if it were set on fire. He tried to curl up, but he could barely move. Jesse had to roll onto his back to look up at the demon, since any other movement was painful. It was grinning down at him, observing him. He glared at it, which was the worse thing he could do it it for now.

" _What's wrong? Are you_ afraid _of me? Want to hurt me? Kill me?"_ It narrowed its eyes.

Jesse didn't have an answer. It wasn't like he could answer anyways.

" _You look nice."_ It bent its head down and turned Jesse back over onto his back. Jesse let out a yelp as soon as the thing touched him.

Jesse backed up from the demon, slowly as pain was still shooting up his legs every time he moved. He just wanted to be with his friends again. Away from this monster. He didn't want to be tormented by this… thing anymore. He just so badly wanted to just be back at home with all of his friends, watching a movie or just talking.

" _You want to go back to your friends."_

Jesse wanted to scream at this thing for stating the obvious. But it was apparent that it would just kill him now or torture him for all eternity. Tears started to escape his eyes again.

" _I can bring you to your friends… at a price."_

Jesse held his breath.

" _But you will only figure out the price after the deal is done."_

Jesse thought for a minute. This thing was making a deal with him. It was a trap. It had to be a trap. But… It was the only way. Otherwise he would be stuck here until he died.

" _Will you take this deal?"_ The demon asked.

After a moment of hesitation, Jesse nodded.

" _Good."_ The demon grinned.

It crouched down. Jesse shrank back as its icy blue eyes were fixed on him. It breathed on him, and for a second, nothing happened. Just the feel of freezing cold air against his body, the scent of rotten flesh and the demon's terrifying gaze. Suddenly, pain, stinging even more than before, spread across his body, and his vision blurred. Jesse screamed out in agony. He clawed at the air, hitting nothing. Soon enough, the pain dulled.

Jesse didn't have the courage to open his eyes. He didn't want to meet the demon's face again. Or see anything else horrifying. Like Petra's face. Or anyone else turning against him like that. Jesse could still feel the dull aching over his body.

" _Change."_

The demon's voice in the cave replayed over and over in his head. This demon had _changed_ him somehow. Maybe that was the price? One thing he noticed was that he felt so _weak_ … both emotionally and physically. His muscles ached, and he could hardly think straight. But he needed to find his friends- and now. Finally, Jesse opened his eyes.

He was met by darkness. Not complete darkness, but enough that he couldn't make much out in front of him. He could tell he was surrounded by dirt-he was in a tunnel of some sort. Roots were sticking out from the walls and ceiling, scratching at his back and sides. Jesse tried to move forward. His limbs felt sore, but it wasn't enough to hold him back. Slowly but steadily, he pushed this way through the gnarled roots and dirt, to eventually be met by light. He scrabbled out of the dirt towards it. The dirt under his feet(?) turned into wood planks. Jesse looked around. He was in a hallway- the mansion his friends had taken shelter in. He could tell it was still raining by the sound of water pounding on the ground and roof outside, and the water leaking from the ceiling and pooling on the dusty floor. But the sun has since risen. Jesse tried to get up to his feet, but his legs cave out under him. He would be forced to be on all fours.

Jesse started to crawl. He felt exposed without his armor alone in a place like this. He noticed that the air felt a lot warmer now, which he wasn't complaining about. As soon as he got to the end of the hallway back to the main lobby, he sat down, staring down at his hands- well, they weren't really hands anymore. He took a breath in. Even just going slowly down the hallway felt exhausting. He shook his head. What was wrong with him?

Suddenly, Jesse felt something pierce his skin, and pain shot up his shoulder. He let out a yelp, and turned sharply. Lukas was standing at the top of the stairs, wide-eyed, bow string still quivering from shooting the arrow. Jesse stood up, frozen. He was happy to see his friend, but he just shot an arrow at him!

Lukas shouted something, but Jesse couldn't hear it. He couldn't hear anything. Soon enough, the blond pulled back another arrow as Olivia ran out from the hallway, eyes wide. She drew her bow as well. Jesse tried to yell at them to stop, and it's just him, but he couldn't shape is mouth to say the words. And he couldn't hear what he said anyways. Olivia fired her arrow. It hit him in the side, and he stumbled back. Lukas' arrow missed by a block. Jesse cowered back, fighting back the tears. Why were his friend hurting him? Did they not want him anymore?

Axel came out, walking down the stairs, a sword in hand. Jesse tried again to say something, but he couldn't. He glanced behind him to see the doors. That was it.

Jesse took one last glance at his friends. Lukas was about to fire another arrow, and Olivia was reaching for one. Axel was coming dangerously close. Jesse turned, and barged right through the doors. He ran, and didn't look back.


End file.
